Brussels, 17/02/2011 (Agence Europe) During a visit to Berlin on Wednesday 16 February for the 14th EU police conference, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called for a strengthening of information exchange provided by the EU to the member states' security services. For Europol, for example, she said she knew it would be able to do more, along with other EU agencies and other players like Interpol. She explained that Europol depended on the desire of the national authorities to provide new information for the Europol databases and take part in Europol-coordinated initiatives, but said she was told that in 2009, only 10 member states provided information for the Europol database. She said she hoped that national authorities would share more information and take a more active role in Europol in the future. Commenting on the Swedish Initiative (on exchange of information on criminals and a deadline for responding to urgent requests) and Prüm (automatic exchange of DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registration details), the commissioner pointed out several shortcomings, explaining that only 10 member states so far have explained to the Commission how they have transposed the Swedish Initiative into their legal systems. She feared that other member states had not taken any action at all. Prüm is due to be up and running in August this year, explained Malmström, but the member states are not ready because of problems with information technology. She called for greater training for police officers by means of a European training course and for the police in the member states to have greater “trust” in EU systems. (S.P./transl.fl)