EU JHA Council in Luxembourg Tackles Corruption, Child Protection

On 14 June 2024, Luxembourg’s Minister of Justice, Elisabeth Margue, participated in the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council of the European Union in Luxembourg, under the Belgian Presidency.

The meeting began with the discussion of a directive on the fight against corruption, Luxembourg's Ministry of Justice confirmed. Ministers examined this proposal, which aims to amend and update EU legislation in this area, based on three key pillars: prevention, detection and sanctions. The main innovations of this proposal consist in modernising the legal framework for the fight against corruption, particularly in the private sector, and in developing the preventive aspects of this fight.

The ministers then held two policy debates. The first debate focused on a proposal for a regulation aimed at facilitating the recognition of a child's parentage between Member States. In this regard, Elisabeth Margue stressed her support for a broad scope of this regulation, to cover all types of situations without any discrimination whatsoever. A child should not suffer the consequences of the circumstances of his or her conception, birth or family composition, the ministry stressed, adding that “what matters above all is the best interests of the child and the protection of his or her fundamental rights”.

The second debate concerned the proposal to reform a 2011 directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. The aim is to broaden the definitions of these offences and to introduce higher penalties and more specific requirements for prevention and assistance to victims, according to the ministry.

During the lunch debate, ministers also discussed Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, with a particular focus on the fight against impunity.