The two-day Informal Meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council is taking place at the beginning of the Greek Presidency, and chaired by Greek Justice Minister Charalambos Athanassiou on January 22-24 at Zappeion Megaron. It brings together the Ministers from the Member States who are responsible for these areas, as well as the Commissioners for Home Affairs and Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights. Ministers are dealing with broader issues regarding the guidelines of the future development of the JHA area in the EU.

 On the first day, the agenda focused on dossiers related to justice matters such as procedural rights and international aspects of the data protection regulation while on the second day, issues related to Home Affairs and particularly terrorism and border security will be discussed. This is the first Council meeting during Greece's presidency.

During the meeting, the Ministers for Justice focused on topics prioritized by the Greek presidency, such as data protection reform, cross –border operation of small claims, and more.

Greece’s European partners praised the country on its organisation of the informal JHA ministerial council, European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding said that the "Greek presidency will serve in the best way possible the 570 million European citizens, if it adheres to the schedule for processing legislation and especially a reform of laws on personal data."

Informal Meeting of Ministers for JHA: Press conference, 23.01.2014 [video]

For the latest developments, please visit the Hellenic Presidency site