On Wednesday 8 January, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) “reprimanded” the European border guard agency, Frontex, for failing to comply with a provision of its regulation concerning the transmission of data on suspects of cross-border crime to Europol, according to a press release (Regulation 2019/1896 establishing a European border and coast guard).
Frontex has since decided to discontinue automatic data sharing with Europol, following an EDPS audit report in May 2023, so the EDPS simply issued a reprimand to Frontex.
In particular, the EDPS criticises Frontex for systematically and proactively sharing information with Europol “without performing any kind of assessment of the necessity of such sharing, contrary to what is required by Frontex regulation”.
In October 2022, the EDPS focused on the debriefing interviews conducted by Frontex with persons intercepted crossing external borders and on the subsequent use by the agency of the information collected.
Since then, “Frontex has only once shared personal data on cross-border crime suspects with Europol, after an individual, precise and specific assessment that this information was strictly necessary for Europol to perform its mandate. Frontex has also engaged in discussions with Europol to define criteria to assess whether the information collected is strictly necessary for Europol to perform its mandate, and detailed rules for the sharing of such information, before the exchanges resume”.
Link to press release: https://aeur.eu/f/eya (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)