The Stockholm Programme is a five-year plan with guidelines for

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and home affairs of the member states of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

for the years 2010 through 2014.

The programme contains guidelines for a common politics on the topics of protection of fundamental rights, privacy,

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements oft ...

and rights of groups of people in need of special protection, as well as a

citizenship of the European Union The European Union citizenship is a legal status afforded to all nationals of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU c ...

. In the programme there are also plans for a new European security architecture through the extension of cooperation in the areas of police, military and secret services and measures in the area of border-crossing data exchange between state authorities and surveillance of the internet. It touches areas as different as

homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

and

public security Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensu ...

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

( European pact on immigration and asylum), the combat against

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

, and even

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

private law Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...

inheritance law Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offici ...

and others. There is supposed to be expansion of

Europol Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating c ...

and Eurojust, the establishing of interoperability of police databases, a centralised resident register, improved satellite surveillance, joined

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

planes and flights, new

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

s outside the EU territory, usage of the military against immigration, police intervention outside of EU territory, expansion of the

European Gendarmerie Force The European Gendarmerie Force (EUROGENDFOR) is a European rapid reaction force composed of elements of several European police and gendarmerie forces. EUROGENDFOR is tasked with performing policing tasks within the scope of crisis management ope ...

and intensified cooperation of secret services, etc.. The Stockholm Programme also includes support for the ongoing Prague Process, stating that the memory of

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

crimes "must be a collective memory, shared and promoted, where possible, by us all," and emphasizing that "the Union is an area of shared values, values which are incompatible with crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, including crimes committed by totalitarian regimes."

History

After the Tampere Programme of 1999 and the Hague Programme of 2004, the Stockholm Programme is the third programme of its kind for the states of the European Union. It has been prepared by the Swedish

Presidency of the Council of the European Union The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member state ...

for its informal meeting held on 15-17 July 2009, and was named after the place of its publication (

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, the capital of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

). After decisions-making by the ministers of the interior and the ministers for justice on 1 December 2009, it was presented to the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the he ...

on 10th and 11th of that month for the final referendum on its summit in Brussels.

Literature

''The Stockholm Programme: An open and secure Europe serving the citizen''
Draft, 16th Oktober 2009 (PDF file, 765 KB)
OpenDocument Text
( ODF file; 93 KB). * European Civil Liberties Network
Statement by the European Civil Liberties Network* on the new EU five-year plan on Justice and Home Affairs
April 2009. (PDF file, 44 KB) *

Federal Trust The Federal Trust for Education and Research is a research institute studying the interactions between regional, national, European and global levels of government. Founded in 1945 on the initiative of Sir William Beveridge, it has long made a powe ...

More than Just a five-year itch?
* Centre for European Reform

* German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Reprogramming EU home affairs
* Say No to Stockholm
noblogs.org

References

{{Prague Process Policies of the European Union Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism

Contents

History

Literature

References