On Wednesday 4 May, the European Parliament gave its final approval to a draft agreement reached with the EU Council on the new tasks of the police cooperation agency Europol, which will be able to exchange data with third countries or private entities and to help Member States control foreign direct investment in security-related cases.
By 480 votes to 143 with 20 abstentions, MEPs approved the agreement reached in February, which also allows Europol to carry out research and innovation projects and to process large data sets.
The sensitive issue in February was the length of time Europol retained data to assist Member States’ investigations, which the European Supervisor had found to be outside the legal framework. The February agreement provided for a transition period for the agency, which is authorised to process large volumes of data, to apply the new mandate to these retained data (see EUROPE 12881/5).
The legislators agreed in return that the agency should create a new post of fundamental rights officer. The European Data Protection Supervisor will monitor the processing of data by the Agency and will cooperate in this respect with its Data Protection Officer. Citizens will be able to consult their personal data by contacting the competent authorities in the Member States, or Europol directly.
These guarantees were not considered sufficient for the Greens/EFA group. “Europol was ordered in January to delete data not related to a criminal investigation”, says Saskia Bricmont in a statement. “The agency will, with its new mandate, override this injunction”.
For the EDRi association, with its vote, the Parliament is supporting “a massive and uncontrolled expansion of Europol’s powers, which constitutes a threat to the rights of individuals through over-policing, mass surveillance and discrimination”.
See the adopted texts : https://aeur.eu/f/1hq (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)