from bbc.co.uk
European interior ministers have agreed on a new system to help police across the EU share DNA, fingerprint and car registration data of criminal suspects. Police in one country will be able to check online for matches on other countries' databases, once the system is up and running. They will still have to ask national authorities to supply full details.
The agreement incorporates most of the Treaty of Pruem - signed by seven EU states in 2005 - into EU law. A measure in the treaty allowing police to chase suspects across borders into another state has been dropped from the agreement at EU level.
'Breakthroughs'
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble, whose government holds the EU presidency, said the decision provided police with "an important source of information" which had helped police make "sensational breakthroughs". He said Austrian police had reported more than 1,000 data match-ups in one six-week period. British Home Office Minister Joan Ryan also welcomed the agreement, noting that criminals did not "respect borders". "It is therefore vitally important that our law enforcement authorities have the tools available to obtain information held by other EU countries as quickly as possible to help with the investigation and prevention of crime."
But British Conservative MEP Syed Kamall described the Pruem treaty as "a dangerous pet project of the German presidency".
Data of innocent people
"In forcing it through, the Germans have ignored the views of the European Parliament and the concerns of the EU data protection chief," he said. "We are sleepwalking into a Big Brother Europe while our government stands idly by." British Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has criticised the absence of common rules across the EU on whose data is recorded
"In the UK for example, the national DNA database contains the information not only of convicted criminals, but also of one million citizens who have never been convicted of any crime and 25,000 children who have never even been charged with an offence," she said.
"The sensitive personal data of innocent people should not be shared around Europe." She added that there had been no democratic input, either from national parliaments or the European Parliament as a "private treaty between a few EU countries" was slipped into EU law.
A House of Lords report published last month called for a proposed European framework decision on data protection to be approved at the same time as the adoption of the Pruem Treaty provisions.
Foreign police
"The government should try to ensure that United Kingdom data protection standards are replicated across the EU," the report said. In addition to the seven states that signed the Pruem Treaty in 2005 - Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria - four others signed up in 2006 - Finland, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia.
The original treaty allows air marshals to be deployed on planes, but this was another provision dropped from the EU-wide agreement. The agreement does allow for police from one EU state to be deployed in another, carrying weapons and wearing their own national uniform, for major sporting or other events.
The UK's DNA database is reported to be the largest in the world, half as large again as all the databases of other member states put together.
European interior ministers have agreed on a new system to help police across the EU share DNA, fingerprint and car registration data of criminal suspects. Police in one country will be able to check online for matches on other countries' databases, once the system is up and running. They will still have to ask national authorities to supply full details.
The agreement incorporates most of the Treaty of Pruem - signed by seven EU states in 2005 - into EU law. A measure in the treaty allowing police to chase suspects across borders into another state has been dropped from the agreement at EU level.
'Breakthroughs'
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble, whose government holds the EU presidency, said the decision provided police with "an important source of information" which had helped police make "sensational breakthroughs". He said Austrian police had reported more than 1,000 data match-ups in one six-week period. British Home Office Minister Joan Ryan also welcomed the agreement, noting that criminals did not "respect borders". "It is therefore vitally important that our law enforcement authorities have the tools available to obtain information held by other EU countries as quickly as possible to help with the investigation and prevention of crime."
But British Conservative MEP Syed Kamall described the Pruem treaty as "a dangerous pet project of the German presidency".
Data of innocent people
"In forcing it through, the Germans have ignored the views of the European Parliament and the concerns of the EU data protection chief," he said. "We are sleepwalking into a Big Brother Europe while our government stands idly by." British Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has criticised the absence of common rules across the EU on whose data is recorded
"In the UK for example, the national DNA database contains the information not only of convicted criminals, but also of one million citizens who have never been convicted of any crime and 25,000 children who have never even been charged with an offence," she said.
"The sensitive personal data of innocent people should not be shared around Europe." She added that there had been no democratic input, either from national parliaments or the European Parliament as a "private treaty between a few EU countries" was slipped into EU law.
A House of Lords report published last month called for a proposed European framework decision on data protection to be approved at the same time as the adoption of the Pruem Treaty provisions.
Foreign police
"The government should try to ensure that United Kingdom data protection standards are replicated across the EU," the report said. In addition to the seven states that signed the Pruem Treaty in 2005 - Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria - four others signed up in 2006 - Finland, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia.
The original treaty allows air marshals to be deployed on planes, but this was another provision dropped from the EU-wide agreement. The agreement does allow for police from one EU state to be deployed in another, carrying weapons and wearing their own national uniform, for major sporting or other events.
The UK's DNA database is reported to be the largest in the world, half as large again as all the databases of other member states put together.
