European Diary: The idyllic surroundings of Stratford-upon- Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, played host to interior ministers from the EU's six biggest states last week.
British home secretary John Reid chaired a two-day meeting, which included his counterparts from France, Spain, Poland, Italy and Germany. Terrorism, the integration of Muslims, tax fraud and immigration were all on the agenda of the meeting, where ministers agreed to:
co-operate on an initiative to monitor and analyse internet use by terrorists to make it a hostile environment for them to operate in;
organise a conference, road shows and media campaigns to encourage dialogue with Muslims to prevent radicalisation in their communities;
set up a joint analysis unit to disrupt the activities of illegal immigration networks and people smugglers on routes from Africa, and
implement an operational plan in all six states to tackle human trafficking.
The plan to crack down on human trafficking is modelled on an existing British- Irish strategy that targets human traffickers, which is code-named Operation Pentameter. It seeks to disrupt the activities of criminal gangs suspected of being involved in people trafficking for the sex trade.
Joint operations and intelligence sharing between the Garda and British police helped to rescue 84 people, including 12 children aged 14 to 17 who had been forced to work as prostitutes, between February and June this year. Yet despite the success of Operation Pentameter, Irish officials or the Garda were not present at Stratford to share their experiences with European ministers.
Ireland and the other 18 member states in the EU are not invited to these big country biannual meetings, which first began in 2003 at the instigation of then British home secretary David Blunkett and the French presidential aspirant Nicolas Sarkozy.
Together the group of six states, which is known as the G6 when it meets to discuss justice issues, represents three-quarters of the EU's population. The meetings are held in private session and, although they are described as informal get-togethers, increasingly they are used as laboratories to devise legislation and test new ideas.
Understandably, many small- and medium-sized EU states are nervous about the G6. "It is perceived as an insult by smaller states because they can't join the elite group," says Thierry Balzacq, an analyst at the think tank Centre for European Policy Studies.
"It is also influencing the EU justice agenda as big states push ideas formulated at the G6 on colleagues at the council who haven't taken part in the original discussions."
Gay Mitchell, who opposed proposals to enable core groups of EU states to move ahead on their own in the Amsterdam Treaty, says the influence of the G6 is a concern because of the huge voting power that the six biggest EU states have at the council of ministers.
"This could enable them to hijack the agenda," says Mr Mitchell, who notes that during his time working at EU level, French ministers had a tendency to slip in and out of council of ministers meetings when it suited them.
EU attendance records show this habit hasn't changed. Mr Sarkozy has not attended a single justice council this year, while John Reid and his predecessor Charles Clarke were present at just one council, which is intended as the forum where EU justice ministers should meet to scrutinise, debate and amend all European justice legislation.
"I have no objection to informal discussions between member states but when the six biggest countries get together, there is a danger that these fireside chats will translate into legislative decisions," says Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, who criticises the tendency of large states towards legislating on justice matters behind closed doors.
She alleges that some states in the G6 group have blocked data protection legislation related to security investigations and introduced several key amendments to sensitive visa legislation at the council of ministers after discussing them at informal meetings.
"The G6 format is very opaque and can lead to pre-determined legislation at the council . . . it is legislating by the back door," says Ms Ludford, who has campaigned for greater openness in EU decision-making to make it more relevant to the public.
The House of Lords EU committee also attacked the G6 format in July, saying that these "secret meetings" could ride roughshod over the 19 smaller member states. In a report entitled Behind Closed Doors, British peers said the only way they could get hold of any information about a G6 meeting held in Germany in March was by translating a press release from the German ministry of the interior.
Yet despite concerns about the G6 format, the tide in Brussels is turning toward these types of advance groups within the EU.
Tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs recently floated the idea of using the "enhanced co-operation" mechanism in the EU treaties to enable some states to move ahead with harmonisation of the tax base. Proposals for some states to share police information are also under consideration.
But these proposals would use existing mechanisms within the EU treaties, meaning that Ireland and other smaller states would have to be offered an invitation to join the group. The G6, meanwhile, retains the elements of secrecy and intrigue so often central to the plot of a Shakespearean play.