On the occasion of the 3354th Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, the following migration related items were discussed:

- Managing migration flows, including operational actions identified by the Task Force Mediterranean; the launch on 1 November of the EU-funded operation Triton, as well as the need to enhance the EU commitment on resettlement and updates on the Rabat and Khartoum processes

- Foreign fighters, in particular the need to achieve further progress in the judicial response and information exchange

- State of play of a number of legislative proposals, including :

• The directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing (see EMN news on this proposal);
• The regulation amending regulation 604/2013 as regards determining the member state responsible for examining the application for international protection of unaccompanied minors with no family member, sibling or relative legally present in a member state (see EMN news on this proposal);
• The Smart borders package;
• The regulation establishing a touring visa and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and regulations 562/2006 and 767/2008;
• The regulation on the Union Code on Visas (Visa Code).

- A specific attention has been given to the functioning of the Schengen area. Council conclusions in this particular field have been adopted, emphasizing the Schengen evaluations 15 years after it has been integrated into the EU. It also discussed the Commission’s sixth biannual report on the functioning of the Schengen area (1 May 2014- 31 October 2014).

The full Justice and Home Affairs meeting press release can be downloaded or read here.