Europe moves toward single area on justice and home affairs

EU leaders on Friday (11 December) adopted a five-year plan giving a greater role to community bodies in the area of justice and home affairs, establishing an "internal security strategy" and pointing toward a common asylum system by 2012.

The so-called Stockholm programme tries to combine a Swedish EU presidency focus on civil rights with more security-driven provisions, including a tougher stance on illegal immigration - something called for by Italy and other Mediterranean countries...