On Monday 10 October members of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) set out their position on the proposed directive to strengthen police cooperation in the EU, namely the directive on information exchange between law enforcement authorities of Member States repealing the 2006 Council Framework Decision (2006/960/JHA).
They adopted - with 42 votes for, 12 against and 1 abstention - the report by Lena Düpont (EPP, German) and the launch of interinstitutional negotiations with the Council of the EU, with 52 votes for, 0 against and 2 abstentions.
The Member States had adopted their position in June on this directive (see EUROPE 12969/2), which regulates the organisational and procedural aspects of the exchange of information and must guarantee equivalent access to information available in other Member States. Among other things, MEPs introduced safeguards on the Rule of law to prevent the system being abused, says a statement, and broadened the scope of the text.
The aim of the report on the exchange of information between law enforcement authorities is to encourage exchanges between police and border officials from different EU countries by clarifying the procedures, rules and deadlines for sharing information, while strengthening the role of Europol.
Under the new rules, contact points must receive information from the authorities of other EU countries under conditions equivalent to those of their own country’s authorities. At the same time, Europol’s secure information exchange network application (SIENA) would become the mandatory channel for official cross-border exchanges.
To ensure that the system is not misused, MEPs also want special precautions and increased vigilance in cases where requests for information come from EU countries that are subject to a procedure under Article 7 for alleged violations of the rule of law.
MEPs also want information exchanged between law enforcement agencies to be used as evidence in criminal proceedings, if the Member States concerned explicitly agree.
They also want a strong system for confidentiality and data protection, including provisions for the deletion of erroneous and outdated information after it has been exchanged.
Among the new additions, MEPs call for the scope of the directive to be extended to all crimes, whereas the Commission’s initial proposal only covers serious crimes.
The European Parliament will be asked to validate the commencement of negotiations with the EU Council next week.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/3ix (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)