Brussels, 29/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - The EU ought to improve the exchange of police and judicial information among its member states to better combat cross-border crime, says Luxemburg Justice Minister Luc Frieden. “It's a vital corollary of the area of freedom we have put in place over the last few years and especially with the enlargement of the Schengen area. When citizens can freely cross borders which are now not marked, information on law breakers has to be able to do the same,” Frieden said on 25 January at an exchange of views on the future of the freedom, security and justice area in Brdo pri Kranju (Slovenia). “There has to be an agreement on these principles, but thereafter concrete action is needed if police work is not to stop at the borders,” he added in a press release. He encouraged the Slovenian Presidency to draw up a precise list of the data that would be the most useful to the various police forces and courts before deciding on what means - centralised European database or interconnection of national databases - would be best suited to achieve the objective. Frieden also called on his colleagues to set a clear timetable to advance this exchange of information in the interests of the freedom and security of citizens and in compliance with European data protection rules. The Slovenian Presidency and forthcoming French Presidency welcomed these proposals and announced that they would try to move in the way Frieden had suggested. (B.C.)