Luxembourg, 28/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The ministers for justice of the 25 Member States gave mitigated support on Friday to the creation of a European database recording the names of people convicted of a crime and the date of conviction, which was proposed on Tuesday by the Commission. Everyone agrees on cooperation, but there is also a French/German/Spanish initiative on the table and the Member States are divided on the approach to take. This was the first round-table discussion on the Commission proposal, which promises to give rise to lengthy debate. Following the discussion, the President of the JHA Council Luc Frieden stressed that the proposal had “received support” but that “work must continue” on “this very complicated dossier”. Spain; Germany and France launched a project for accelerated electronic communication between their national indices, to be able to check on past convictions. These three countries have shown themselves to be sceptical about the Commission proposal, deeming their own project to be their priority and also easier to implement (see EUROPE of 20 July). They emphasised that their project is open to other Member States.
The German minister Birgitte Zypries was the most reticent. She indicated at a press conference that there was “a certain contradiction” between the Commission proposal and the French/German/Spanish project, emphasising that the Commission proposal requires a new database, in contrast to their project, which would be less expensive. In Germany itself, there are 20 000 modifications made to the centralised index of offenders every day, she said by way of a demonstration that entering these changes into a European database as well would be impracticable. Her Spanish counterpart Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar also opposed the creation of a centralised European index at the meeting; diplomats have indicated. In front of the press, however; he appeared more open to the Commission proposal. There are technical, linguistic and legal issues in making the index proposed by the Commission compatible with the French/German/Spanish project, but these could be resolved, he told the press. The UK, which is the only Member State without a centralised index of offenders, is open to the idea of an index, but thinks that there could be technical problems, indicated the new Home Secretary Charles Clarke at the meeting, stressing that maintaining an index was already difficult enough at national level. The new Member States, who emphasised the considerable efforts to which they already have to go to put in place networks which already exist or are being created, such as the new generation Schengen information system (SISII), were not very enthusiastic about the idea of having to create a new database either.
The European Commissioner Franco Frattini reassured all concerned that there would be no duplication between his project and that of the three Member States. He said he was optimistic of finding a compromise, “because demands are split”. In Luc Frieden's view, the project run by the three Member States “goes mess far in some cases, because there is no direct access to the database in the other countries, but rather mutual legal assistance, which is very complicated”. Mr Frattini recalled that his project is a first step towards a European criminal records base. The Commission is due to present a legislative proposal in the spring to firm up its ideas on this idea of a European index of offenders.
Since the Fourniret affair exploded last summer (the case of a paedophile who was allowed to work in a school canteen in Belgium and continue his abuses despite having past convictions for sexual offences against minors in France), the idea of European cooperation in this area has been relaunched. The Commission tabled a first proposal in October which the Council has already discussed and which could be approved rapidly. This is to set deadlines to step up the transmission of information from indices of offenders (see EUROPE of 3 December). The Commission on Tuesday published a white paper in which it proposed the creation of a European register of offenders, followed subsequently by standardised forms to male information more comprehensible. Although divided on the issue of the European index, the ministers largely agreed on Friday on the Belgian proposal to systematically register all bans from working with children because of paedophile offences. In general terms, they approved this sectoral approach to employment bans. The ministers were more reticent on the Austrian proposal whereby offenders should serve their sentence in their Member State of origin. Many agreed with this principle, while at the same time emphasising that this should not be automatic, and that an offender should be able to serve their sentence in the country where they were convicted if, for example, they have greater family ties there.