The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, gave some details on Monday 16 November to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on the initiatives envisaged to strengthen the fight against terrorism in the EU.
A few days after the adoption by the EU Interior Ministers of a declaration to this effect (see EUROPE 12601/1), it confirmed in particular the 9 December presentation of an action plan against terrorism which will include a revision of Europol’s mandate and will be based on the lessons learned from the “recent attacks”.
This plan is also expected to have a section devoted to prevention, particularly with regard to radicalisation in prison, and should insist on increased security in public spaces and, therefore, around places of worship. The Commissioner said that she is currently exploring with local authorities how to devote more funds to these developments.
The Commission also wants to get Member States to better implement the legislation on firearms and is also due to present new initiatives on critical infrastructure protection and a cybersecurity plan.
But it is more specifically on two forthcoming initiatives that MEPs wanted to ask it about: in particular, the announced recast of the 2004 directive on Advanced Passenger Information (API) and the recast of the Prüm intergovernmental cooperation decision (exchange of DNA and fingerprint data amongst participating countries).
These two new actions worry some MEPs, who see them as a new step in the collection of personal data for law enforcement purposes, pointed out Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, Germany).
These two initiatives will only arrive in 2021 and, as far as API data are concerned, it will not be a question of collecting new data, but of modernising the way they are processed and used by European services, the Commissioner assured. These API data go hand in hand with the Directive on the collection of air passenger data and also represent the information delivered at the time of purchase of the air ticket (name, address, credit card used) and may provide additional elements to the PNR elements.
The Commissioner explained that the possibility of extending the collection of API data to modes of transport other than aircraft was being studied, which provoked some sharp remarks from Members of Parliament.
Ms Ernst responded, “Will we have to give out our data every time, on the train, bus or tram?”
The Prüm decision will not be about creating a large European base either, the Commissioner reassured. She has so far identified “major shortcomings”, as Member States are obliged to go through one channel at a time when they should, in theory, have access to all data at once. The solution could be a more centralised arrangement. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)