Brussels, 26/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has given its support to two Spanish initiatives in the war on terrorism. The report by Gerardo Galeote Quecedo (EPP) on police and legal co-operation, as well as that on national assessment mechanisms in the fight against terrorism, were approved on Tuesday by a large majority - 404 in favour, 52 against, 46 abstentions and 373 for, 80 against and 50 abstentions respectively. The European Parliament is proposing several amendments to strengthen data protection and to ensure that it is kept informed about the follow-up to these proposals. These modifications are not binding because the EP only has consultative powers in this domain.
The legal and police co-operation proposal aims above all to designate a contact point between the Minister of Justice and police in each Member State, which is in charge of intelligence gathering on terrorism and communicating the subsequent information to their counterparts in Member States. MEPs believe that data collation and information exchange should remain strictly limited to investigations into terrorism and demand the full respect for Community and national rule on matters involving data protection. They also propose that the legal contact is systematically the national correspondent of Eurojust, so that multiplying network contact points is avoided. The European Parliament is also using this matter to insist on the importance of Europol and the setting up of joint investigation teams. It has again called for Parliamentary control in Europol to be strengthened.
The proposal on the assessment of national provisions on fighting against terrorism suggests European level evaluation with measures being applied by Member States. The European Parliament is requesting that the Secretariat General of the Council prepares an assessment and drafts the reports, rather than the Presidency of the Council, as suggested by Spain.