But it is also important for justice and home affairs policy.

Justice and home affairs policy does not have an impact on the budget.

So we need to make a distinction between politically significant themes, including justice and home affairs policy, in the coming year.

The Council has decided that justice and home affairs policy must form part of the structure of the Union.

I would like to talk about the assessment in Laeken on the subject of the application of justice and home affairs policies.

The ambition is to restate the broad scope of justice and home affairs policy in the European Union.

The final topic that I would like to mention, as it was also discussed in the Committee on Budgets, is justice and home affairs policy.

It is important for this Parliament, as the representative of the citizens of Europe, to propose a route to be taken by the justice and home affairs policy.

The Scottish Government Justice and Communities Directorates are responsible for devolved justice and home affairs policy.

The tools to solve these problems are at our disposal in a common foreign and security policy and a justice and home affairs policy, but they lie unemployed.

I believe that the external dimension of the common justice and home affairs policy is extremely important in the context of both the immigration component and the anti-crime component.

This is why there is hardly a content area for which the entry into force of the Constitutional Treaty is so important as that of justice and home affairs policy.

Lastly, we emphasise that Parliament must be able to exercise control over external policy and justice and home affairs policy by means of periodic consultation regarding the overall strategy pursued.

The June European Council is likely to initiate an assessment of the achievements of the Tampere programme, with a view to launching a further development of the Union’s justice and home affairs policies.

Among other things, the Amsterdam Treaty laid the foundation stone for a common justice and home affairs policy and for a common and viable foreign and security policy for the Union.

To achieve this aim, the European Union will have to use and strengthen a number of operational instruments of our Common Foreign and Security Policy and our Justice and Home Affairs policy.

Everyone adds to it as they see fit, everyone gives it the shape and interpretation that suits them, and that is particularly evident and disturbing with the third pillar of the common justice and home affairs policy.

The reality is that we are already engaged with the requirements and application of the Treaty of Lisbon, which transfers almost all of justice and home affairs policy to a qualified majority of the Council of Ministers.

However, to ensure that this middle way really does feed into the justice and home affairs policy, we are calling for more control rights for this Parliament and for the national parliaments in the EU as part of the implementation of the Stockholm Programme.

What we spend on the European Union as a whole, on our work to promote research, economic prosperity, solidarity with others, young people, the protection of the environment, transport, the common foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs policy amounts to some EUR 100 billion per annum.

After the attacks of 11 September in New York, we saw what was, unfortunately, a one-off advance in our common justice and home affairs policy, with a great deal decided on in record time: the European Arrest Warrant, a single definition of terrorism, which included a framework for penalties and the freezing of all funds for terrorist purposes.

We did not always agree on asylum issues, but we always gave you great support where justice and home affairs policy was concerned and I hope it was this that brought forth applause from the Left, since that shows that in the future we will be in a position to act together and be stronger than we were before.

Here are just three ways: the Council could and should be more open, legislating in public, respecting freedom of information; justice and home affairs policy could and should be decided by the normal Community method, as provided for in the existing treaties; the European Parliament could and should be given a real say on international agreements.

Data protection in the common foreign and security policy, greater parliamentary participation, the abolition of the third pillar in favour of a common justice and home affairs policy, the legally binding nature of the Charter, these are all subjects which are important even for the Liberals in the centre and based on our common values.

Clearly, the institutional reforms of the Lisbon Treaty are important and it is also true that the changes made to EU policies, to the common foreign and security policy, to the justice and home affairs policy and in other areas are vital so that the Union can tackle the future and meet the challenges facing us.