On Thursday 29 September, the European Commission sent warning letters to Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, accusing them of bad application of the 2008 Prüm decisions on the exchange of information between European police forces involved in DNA analysis, fingerprint identification and vehicles registration analysis decisions.
The Commission says the countries have not arranged the automatic exchange of information of such data for at least two of the three categories of information covered by the Prüm decisions, which are partiuclarly used in combating terrorism and organised crime. The countries now have two months to respond. The decisions were due to be transposed in 2011.
This is the first time that the European Commission is issuing third-pillar infringement proceedings in the domain of police and judicial cooperation (which used to be intergovernmental) - an option now granted to the Commission by the Lisbon Treaty. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)