Brussels, 22/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission asked the Council of the EU on Monday 22 June to authorise it to negotiate an international agreement with Denmark and the Schengen associated countries that would allow the law enforcement authorities of these countries to make use of the Eurodac database of asylum seekers' fingerprints for anti-terrorism purposes.
Once this intergovernmental agreement has been concluded, the law enforcement authorities of the five countries concerned (Denmark, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) will be able to request comparison of fingerprint data with those stored in the Eurodac central database when they seek to establish the exact identity of a person, or get further information concerning someone who is suspected of a serious crime or terrorism. As things stand, these countries can already conduct searches in the Eurodac database for asylum purposes. (Mathieu Bion)