EU To Implement New Cross Border Cooperative Measures to Combat Terrorism
By Victor Comras
The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council decided, June 11th to finally implement their agreement last January to expand cross border police and judicial cooperation on an operational and information-sharing basis to combat terrorism, cross-border crime and illegal migration. (See my January 15, 2007 blog). The plan originally called for setting up an EU-wide network of national data bases accessible by participating countries with regard to the investigation, prevention and prosecution of terrorism, cross border crime, and illegal immigration It envisaged a broad range of cross border cooperation including information exchange, sky marshals, counter-terrorism cooperation, illegal immigration, repatriation, joint cross-border policing operations, and civil crisis management.
But the Council has only agreed to move ahead now with one phase of this program. This involves the community wide application of so-called Prum Treaty measures which provide for close police co-operation and information exchange on DNA-profiles, fingerprints and vehicle number-plates. Each EU member country must now designate specific contact points within their law enforcement and investigative agencies through which they can each have gain access to each other’s DNA, fingerprint and vehicle-registration information.
But, not everyone is happy with this agreement. EU privacy advocates have indicated they intend to challenge the new measures in the EU Parliament, national parliaments, and in the EU court system. Nevertheless, these new measures should go a long way toward improving cross border cooperation in Europe and may eventually be extended to assist in closer cooperation with other like minded countries, including the United States and Canada.
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