EU Announces Progress on Mutual Assistance and Protection of the Euro

On December 29, 1999, Johannes Koskinen, the Finnish Minister of Justice, announced considerable progress on the Presidency’s main objectives in the field of justice affairs. One of the key goals has been the draft Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance. It will make legal assistance between the member states of the EU more efficient. The draft instrument has provisions, e.g., on legal assistance in situations where one member state wishes, for purposes of criminal investigation, to intercept the telephone of a person staying in another member state. The differences of opinion concerning have slowed the progress of the negotiations for some years…[more]