The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) met in Luxembourg on 7–8 October. The Council was chaired by Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo.

The first item on the agenda for the meeting of home affairs ministers on 8 October was combatting the sexual abuse of children. The Council adopted conclusions on the subject.

The home affairs ministers also discussed right-wing violent extremism and terrorism, focusing in particular on analysing the nature of the threat and the existing responses.

They also discussed the challenges and opportunities new technologies, such as 5G mobile networks, may bring to internal security.

As part of the debate on the prevention of hybrid threats, the ministers heard the results and recommendations for further work of their scenario-based discussion held in Helsinki in July.

General overview on migration, temporary mechanism for the Mediterranean

Over lunch, ministers discussed the state of play on migration.

They also discussed a joint proposal, agreed by Germany, France, Italy and Malta on 23 September, concerning a temporary mechanism for relocating asylum seekers rescued from the Mediterranean to other EU member states. Involvement in the scheme is voluntary. The European Commission and Finland as the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU brokered the negotiations between the four countries.