Treaty of Prüm – inserting proposal published in Official Journal

An initiative by 15 member states to insert the main provisions of the Treaty of Prüm into EU law has been published on 28 March 2007 in the Official Journal (OJ) of the EU.

Document:

OJ, C 71, 28.3.2007, pp. 35-45.

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Article 30(1)(a) and (b), Article 31(1)(a), Article 32 and Article 34(2)(c) thereof,

On the initiative of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Finland, the Portuguese Republic, Romania and the Kingdom of Sweden,

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament,

Whereas:

(1) The Council of the European Union attaches fundamental importance to the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice, which is a fundamental concern of the people of the States brought together in the Union.

(2) The European Union has set itself the goal of giving the citizens in that area of freedom, security and justice a high degree of security by developing common procedures among the Member States in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

(3) The conclusions of the European Council meeting in Tampere in October 1999 confirmed the need for improved exchange of information between the competent authorities of the Member States for the purpose of detecting and investigating offences.

(4) In the Hague Programme for strengthening freedom, security and justice in the European Union of November 2004, the European Council set forth its conviction that for that purpose an innovative approach to the crossborder exchange of law enforcement information was needed.

(5) The European Council accordingly stated that the exchange of such information should comply with the conditions applying to the principle of availability. This means that a law enforcement officer in one Member State of the Union who needs information in order to carry out his duties can obtain it from another Member State and that the law enforcement agencies in the Member State that holds this information will make it available for the declared purpose, taking account of the needs of investigations pending in that Member State.

(6) The European Council set 1 January 2008 as the deadline for achieving this objective in the Hague Programme.

(7) The Framework Decision 2006/960/JHA of 18 December 2006 on simplifying the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities of the Member States of the European Union (2) lays down rules whereby the Member States’ law enforcement authorities may exchange existing information and intelligence expeditiously and effectively for the purpose of carrying out criminal investigations or criminal intelligence operations. 28.3.2007 C 71/35 Official Journal of the European Union EN (1) Opinion of…(not yet published in the Official Journal). (2) OJ L 386, 29.12.2006, p. 89.

(8) The Hague Programme for strengthening freedom, security and justice states, however, that full use should be made of new technology and that there should also be reciprocal access to national databases. The Hague Programme also stipulates that new centralised European databases should be created only on the basis of studies that have shown their added value.

(9) For effective international cooperation it is of fundamental importance that precise information can be exchanged swiftly and efficiently. The aim is to introduce procedures for promoting fast, efficient and inexpensive means of data exchange. For the joint use of data these procedures shall be subject to accountability and incorporate appropriate guarantees as to the accuracy and security of the data during transmission and storage as well as procedures for recording data exchange and restrictions on the use of information exchanged.

(10) These requirements are satisfied by the Prüm Treaty of 27 May 2005 between the Kingdom of Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Austria on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism, cross-border crime and illegal migration. In order that the substantive requirements of the Hague Programme can be fulfilled for all Member States and that its targets in terms of time-scale can be achieved, the essential parts of the Prüm Treaty need to be made applicable to all Member States. This Council Decision should therefore be based on the main provisions of the Prüm Treaty.

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Official Journal (OJ) of the EU 28 03 2007