European Commission’s Proposal aiming to improve police cooperation at the internal borders between Member States

The Commission adopted on the 18th July 2005 a proposal for a Council Decision on the improvement of police cooperation between Member States at the internal borders and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement. The proposal provides a general framework to facilitate the implementation of the principle of availability and to promoted «strategic and operational cooperation and information exchange» between law enforcement agencies of Member States.

Art. 2 of the legislative proposal gives a definition about the authorities covered by the proposal: «Authorities covered by this Decision» mean the police, customs and other authorities operating under Title VI of the Treaty on European Union, with the exception of judicial authorities.»

This follows the official call given by the Hague Programme (November 2004), which invited «the Commission to bring forward proposals to further develop the Schengen-acquis in respect of operational cross border police cooperation, and in its Declaration on combating terrorism of 29 March 2004, it had instructed the Council, among other things, to examine measures in the area of "cross-border hot pursuit" and called for further development of the legislative framework.»

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European Commission’s Proposal aiming to improve police cooperation at the internal borders between Member States