Brussels, 06/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, said on 29 May about the draft Framework Decision on Member States' organisation and exchange of information in criminal records that: "An EU without internal borders clearly needs exchange of information from criminal records between Member States. However, this naturally raises a number of data protection concerns - notably so in the light of the recent affair where the criminal records of one country were reported to contain the names of some 2700 innocent people. My central message to the Council and the Parliament is that it is absolutely essential that they agree on the Framework Decision on data protection in the third pillar before they adopt this instrument". The draft legislation is one of a series of measures designed to set up an EU criminal records system, mooted after the Fourniret case. The draft legislation wants to ensure that each Member State has information about crime committed by its nationals in other Member States and to be able to provide as much information as possible to Member States requesting such information.
Peter Hustinx makes a series of recommendations for improving the framework decision, like a central authority in each Member State to ensure clear responsibility for handling information as well as in terms of supervision by the national data protection authority; for it to be made even clearer that the convicting Member State shall be considered as the "owner" of the personal data and that the Member State of the convicted person stores the data on the former's behalf; and for more precise criteria for transferring personal information to a third Member State for other purposes than criminal proceedings.