On Tuesday, MEPs advanced proposals allowing EU law enforcement agencies to more easily exchange fingerprint, DNA and vehicle registration data and facial images across borders.
With 42 votes in favour, 10 against, and 1 abstention, MEPs on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs have adopted a draft report on automated data exchange for police cooperation. They would expand the current provisions on data exchanges (the so-called Prüm Convention), to help the police and other authorities investigate cross-border crime.
The EU’s current rules for automated data exchanges for investigating and preventing crimes are based on the Prüm Convention of 2005. In 2021, the Commission proposed so-called ‘Prüm II’ rules to expand and simplify data exchanges as part of the Police Cooperation Code package. It also included a proposal on information exchanges between law enforcement authorities, which was adopted by the European Parliament on 15 March 2023.
Trilogue negotiations on the law were authorised with 49 in favour, 3 against, and 2 abstentions. They still need to be formally endorsed by the Parliament plenary.
Expanding cooperation possibilities
Currently, EU law enforcement officials can automatically share DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data to support investigations. The report adopted today would also expand the scope to cover facial images and police records of suspects and convicted criminals, where member states opt in to sharing these records. The new rules would boost exchanges by harmonising the standards of access to other EU countries’ databases, and exchanges could also help in finding missing persons and identifying human remains.
To make data exchanges easier and more reliable, the proposal would link national databases to a central router and give Europol a stronger role. Law enforcement agencies could automatically check biometric data held by the EU Police Agency, and Europol could check data received from third countries against member state databases.
In their amendments to the Commission proposal, MEPs want to specify that DNA and fingerprint data, facial images and police records can only be exchanged when this is necessary and proportionate for an investigation, that matches must be verified by a human forensic expert, and that facial images and police records can only be exchanged to investigate serious crimes. They also want to add safeguards for data protection and fundamental rights, for example by giving data controllers broad access to the justifications of data requests, and making sure that EU Countries and Europol update their records where necessary, for example in the case of an acquittal.
After the vote, rapporteur Paulo Rangel (EPP, Portugal) said: “Schengen and the right to move freely is one of the EU’s greatest achievements since its foundation. Effective police cooperation is a key pillar to ensure its functioning. With the modernised Prüm exchanges, we will allow law enforcement authorities to cooperate faster and more efficiently when fulfilling their mission of fighting crime and protecting EU citizens, whilst ensuring the highest standards on the protection of personal data. Without security there is no freedom. Without freedom, there is no Schengen.”
