Brussels, 17/03/2022 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 16 March, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties confirmed, by 49 votes to 13 with 5 abstentions, the agreement reached at the beginning of February with the Council of the EU on the first part of the Europol reform, concerning, in particular, the processing of large volumes of data and cooperation with third countries or private actors (see EUROPE 12881/5). Earlier this week, another agreement was reached on the alerts entered in the Schengen Information System (SIS) (see EUROPE 12911/23). The Greens/EFA group opposed this first political agreement, believing that it did not provide sufficient guarantees on data protection, the mode of cooperation with third countries, or the control of the new tasks assigned to the agency. The European Parliament plenary will vote in May on this first part of the reform. (SP)