Brussels, 30/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's civil liberties committee confirmed in its vote on Thursday 30 January that the European Police College (CEPOL) should not be merged with the police cooperation agency, Europol, as proposed by the European Commission in March 2013. With the adoption (45 votes to 2 and 3 abstentions) of the report by Agustin Diaz de Mera Garcia Consuegra (EPP, Spain) on the proposal for a regulation relating to the EU agency for cooperation and training of law enforcement services (Europol), the MEPs rejected the merger and reiterated their wish that the two entities should continue to work separately.
In order to make financial savings and to give Europol a boost, Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström suggested the two bodies should be merged and that, at the same time, new guarantees of protection of fundamental rights should be created within Europol.
MEPs had already deemed this merger ineffective and considered that it could weaken both organisations. They nonetheless agreed with the idea of strengthening safeguards for fundamental rights within Europol and approved the idea of creating a body of MEPs and national MPs responsible for overseeing respect of human rights by the agency (Europol and Commission officials and other key players would be heard at the request of this group). Europol will have to abide by stricter data protection measures.
Europol should only process personal data for specific purposes. Data retrievals should be kept to a strict minimum and personal information should only be handled by authorised staff for as long as the purpose of collection remains valid. Europol should also keep detailed records of all data accessed and the European data protection supervisor (EDPS) should play an active role in monitoring compliance by Europol with its data protection obligations.
Europol should only be able to receive and process personal data held by other EU bodies, law enforcement authorities of non-EU countries and international organisations if “it is strictly necessary and proportionate for the legitimate performance of its tasks”, reads the text adopted on Thursday. Also, the agency should only transfer personal data to those entities if it is necessary for preventing and combating crime and if the recipient gives an explicit undertaking that the data will only be used for the purpose for which they were transmitted, MEPs at the committee say.
The European Parliament will examine the report during the plenary session end February (24-27 February). The beginning of trialogues with the Council is scheduled for after the summer. (SP/transl.jl)