Brussels, 13/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The decision of the Council on the EU on the exchange of information taken from criminal records entered into force on 9 December. This decision adds to and facilitates existing mechanisms to transmit information referring to sentences, based on such instruments as the European Convention on judicial assistance in criminal matters of 1959 and on the 2000 Convention on judicial assistance in criminal matters between the Member States. Each Member State can ask other Member States to provide it, within a given time, with information taken from the criminal record it needs, by using forms for application and response, which are available in all the official languages of the EU.
The Member States are obliged to implement this decision no later than 21 May 2006 (decision 2005/876/JHA of the Council on the exchange of information taken from criminal records was published in the Official Journal L 322 of 9 December 2005).