31 December 2021 marked the end of a cycle of trio presidencies. The cycle had started with the German Presidency on 1 July 2020 (→news of 31 August 2020), continued with the Portuguese Presidency on 1 January 2021 (→news of 1 April 2021), and the Slovenian Presidency took over on 1 July 2021 (→news of 6 July 2021).

On 1 January 2022, a new trio of presidencies of the Council of the EU started its work. Between now and 30 June 2023, the rotating presidency will be held by France, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, in turn. Each term being six months long.

The trio’s programme sets out a series of thematic priorities:

• To protect citizens and freedoms;
• To promote a new growth and investment model for Europe;
• To build a greener and more socially equitable as well as more global Europe.

In the area of police and judicial cooperation, the three Presidencies pursue the following objectives:

• Strengthening the Schengen area as a space of free movement without internal borders;
• Enhancing the effective protection of Schengen’s external borders;
• Reinforcing the Schengen evaluation mechanism and improving its governance;
• Combating organised crime, chiefly human, drugs, and arms trafficking;
• Fighting all forms of terrorism, radicalisation, and violent extremism as well as environmental crime;
• Making greater efforts to better protect victims of terrorism.

The trio also intends to address issues in the field of money laundering and asset recovery as well as the prevention of crimes against cultural heritage. Other priorities include:

• The disruption and identification of high-risk criminal networks active in the EU;
• The deployment and interoperability of EU information systems;
• The strengthening of e-justice and the continued development of digital information exchanges between judicial authorities.

Looking at legislative measures, the trio aims to find an agreement on e-evidence legislation and plans to work on a proposal for a new legal instrument on the transfer of proceedings.