Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - European police force and Europol access to the Eurodac digital asylum seekers' fingerprint database is a controversial issue and access will be limited to cases where there is a major public security concern, such as terrorism or serious crime. The police will also have to have first of all consulted all other available files before requesting Eurodac access authorisation. This is the compromise MEPs from the European Parliament's civil liberties committee adopted on Wednesday 24 April (42 votes to 8), thereby paving the way for entry into force of the “asylum package”. On Wednesday morning, MEPs adopted another report on asylum procedures.
European police access to Eurodac has long been demanded by member states and at the end of May 2012, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström finally met this demand. The database was set up in 2003 and its original objective was not about law enforcement and more about digital storing the fingerprints of asylum seekers aged over 14. This was done with the aim of identifying the first country in the EU asylum seeker came to, as is required by the Dublin regulation. The member state identified would primarily be responsible for the request for asylum by the asylum seeker in question. Gradually member states sought to use this database in their criminal investigations and, therefore, requested partial access to this data, which they can now cross-reference with their other data files.
The European Parliament was unhappy about this new Eurodac function and therefore built in a number of guarantees. According to the text agreed, police force services' access to Eurodac must not undermine the rights of asylum seekers to appropriate treatment in their requests for international protection. The transfer of personal data to third countries or international organisations will also be prohibited.
In order to access Eurodac, member states will still need to appoint an authority to request, via an electronic form, a comparison of fingerprint data with those stored in Eurodac, explains the committee. “If approved, that authority could then access Eurodac via a national access point. A verifying national body would first check that all conditions for requesting such access are met.” Both authorities may be part of the same organisation, but, at MEPs' request, the verifying body should act independently and not receive instructions from the other authority. The text will be submitted to the plenary in June. (SP/transl.fl)