British police must share fingerprints, driving licenses and DNA records with all EU police forces from today
Posted, June 12, 2007 @ 16:00
Blair fails to veto new EU powers on personal data-sharing throughout Europe and, despite of Labour's rhetoric, some elements of the rejected constitution came into force today
Brussels 12 June -- The first shot of a constitution climb-down sounded today as Franco Frattini, Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, confirmed that the Prüm Treaty would now have EU force.
The Prüm Treaty, an international police co-operation agreement signed by Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria on 27 May 2005, has now become part of the legislative framework of the European Union and will be implemented in all Member States allowing mutual access to each others' DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration information systems.
However, the Prüm Treaty, which even the EU Data Protection Commissioner warned was contrary to data protection rules, contains many of the measures that were originally part of the EU Constitution which was voted down two years ago by France and the Netherlands including proposals to give foreign police the right to freely enter the UK and arrest British citizens suspected of crimes abroad with no regard to the current extradition procedures. Other plans include a central European database of EU citizens, containing highly confidential data such as credit cards records. Police will have the right to search any EU citizen’s details even if the person in question is not suspected of any crime.
Philip Bradbourn MEP, Conservative Spokesman on Justice and Home Affairs, said:
“Blair has started the constitution sell-out today. Now everyone's personal details can be sent to police throughout Europe because Britain did not wield the veto. This Treaty fundamentally goes against the rules of data protection and civil liberties that we have come to expect in Europe. This ‘one size fits all approach is clearly inapplicable for countries with very different legal traditions and even senior police in the UK have called for this Treaty to be scrapped, proposing that voluntary bilateral agreements between Member States should be the way forward in security co-operation."