The Spanish rapporteur on the reform of Europol, Javier Zarzalejos (EPP), received on Monday 7 February the support of the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) after the agreement reached on Tuesday 1 February (see EUROPE 12881/5) with the EU Council on the agency’s new mandate.
The majority of groups welcomed the outcome of the negotiations, although the Greens/EFA group expressed concerns about several aspects of the agreement, as did The Left, which will vote against, Irish MEP Clare Daly said.
Most of the groups said they appreciated the fact that the Spanish rapporteur had involved them closely in this negotiation, which was concluded after three rounds of political negotiations with the Council and 13 months after the Commission presented the reform. The S&D group welcomed a “good work”, said Italian Franco Roberti, satisfied with the elements of the agreement on data protection and the retention period for the processing of large data sets.
The Renew Europe group also welcomed progress on data protection and improved governance. For The Left group, however, there are “serious concerns” about other aspects of the text, such as those relating to data transfers with third parties and countries, or the new competences devolved to Europol for research and innovation, which could lead it to use potentially discriminatory technologies with potential abuses.
The Greens/EFA group, as pointed out by Belgian Saskia Bricmont, has doubts about the use of large datasets, the transfer to private parties and Europol’s new competences for research and innovation. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)