Brussels, 20/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx, on Thursday 20 September, expressed serious concern about the agreement by the Council of the EU earlier in the week on the draft decision on data protection in terms of police and judicial criminal cooperation (third pillar). On Tuesday 18 September, EU Interior Ministers reached a political agreement on the main guidelines for this proposal, which has been under negotiation for almost two years in the Council (see EUROPE 9504). The EDPS said he was particularly concerned by the dilution of data protection standards since, as was called for by some member states, including the United Kingdom, the text will apply only to cross-border exchange of personal data and not to national data. “When the Data Protection Framework Decision was first proposed, it was supposed to cover all aspects of policing and the judiciary. The recent agreement by the Council severely limits the scope of the text, and therefore also limits the level of protection the European citizen can expect from the resulting agreement,” Hustinx said in a press release. The text must not lessen the level of protection offered because “otherwise this will make it more difficult for police services to meet their international obligations”. He welcomed, however, the continued efforts of the Portuguese presidency to find an agreement on a final document. (bc)