MEPs voted to endorse the agreement reached between Parliament and Council negotiators to enhance information-sharing between authorities of the EU member states, and to strengthen the role of the EU’s Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Eurojust, in coordinating investigations.
The regulation on information exchanges were approved with 623 votes in favour, 26 against and 4 abstentions, and directive on accompanying data protection provisions with 648 votes in favour, 3 against and 1 abstention.
Modernised case management system
The new proposal would strengthen the requirements on member states to share information related to counter-terrorism investigations with Eurojust, making this process more structured. It would also allow Eurojust to store, share and cross-check new types of data, including biometric data, on current and past investigations to establish links between them. Eurojust would receive information from member states at an early stage in investigations, except where this could jeopardise those investigations.
With the new law, Eurojust will also have a modernized case management system for secure processing of sensitive data, allowing it to detect cross-border links more effectively. Also, Eurojust could support investigations involving a member state and a third country, or a member state and an international organisation, for example the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Provisions to ensure the protection of personal data
The reform will also strengthen the provisions on data protection, with personal data transfers only allowed where needed to identify individuals. Information will be deleted when it is no longer needed to identify cross-border links. In practice, communication between national authorities and Eurojust would happen through a decentralised system making use of e-CODEX access points.
Rapporteur Patryk Jaki (ECR, PL) said: “Too often, counter-terrorism investigations are impeded by the lack of information exchange between EU countries. As rapporteur for this law on enhancing exchanges, I wanted to make sure that data is shared early on in investigations, and that exchanges include all necessary data types. I’m confident that this law results in more effective and structured information-sharing so that the authorities have access to the big picture and can draw links between different investigations. As a result, it will create a system that improves our security.”
Once formally adopted by both the Parliament and the Council, the laws can be published in the official Journal of the EU, and will enter into force on the twentieth day following publication.
