Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-20-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20000920.5.3-059"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentleman, first of all, the Commission wishes to thank the rapporteur, Mr Hernández Mollar, for the excellent report that he has presented and acknowledge that our participation in this debate has been made easier by the fact that we broadly agree with and support the approach he has proposed.
The Commission is pleased with the initiative that has been taken by the Portuguese Government, as we feel that it will contribute to our efforts to rationalise, in a sensible way, the administrative support provided to the bodies responsible for supervising and guaranteeing data protection established by the Europol Convention, the Convention on the Use of Information Technology for Customs Purposes and the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement.
The Commission shares the rapporteur’s view that a single supervisory body needs to be created for these three instruments, because a single supervisory body would ensure that the principles of data protection are applied more coherently, both under the Schengen Convention and the Convention on the Use of Information Technology for Customs Purposes. The creation of a single supervisory body would also prevent an undesirable duplication of work.
Similarly, the Commission agrees with the idea that a range of common essential principles on data protection needs to be established and can be implemented as uniformly as possible throughout the third pillar. It is true that there are currently shortcomings in the Community legal framework in this area. We are pleased that a specialist Council Group has initiated the debate on these common general principles and also that the French Presidency has already made it clear that this issue is one of its priorities.
We must recognise that this is not an easy task, not only because of the sophistication of the technology, but also because it is particularly important for us to find a solution that strikes a balance between safeguarding citizens' rights and freedoms on the one hand and on the other, having the instruments needed to ensure that the democratic rule of law is respected and that we can effectively fight transnational and organised crime.
I feel sure that our first task must be to define these common principles, which can then be translated into the various legislative instruments that we will need to adopt in the coming years under the third pillar. This approach also involves – as various speakers have already pointed out – introducing, either under the Europol Convention or under new laws based on the Schengen Convention, clear and transparent principles of democratic and judicial supervision, which will guarantee the fundamental values on which a Union governed by the rule of law must be based.
Perhaps the most difficult issue that this report raises is the problem of deciding whether a separate budget heading should be created for the joint secretariat. The Commission agrees with the rapporteur’s assertion that it is extremely important to guarantee the independence of this secretariat in relation to the Council itself. The idea that we are therefore advocating, even if this issue can potentially only be resolved in the long term, is to create a separate budget heading. Nevertheless, we understand that for the moment, the Council’s prime concern is that the creation of a new budget heading could cause delays in setting up a joint secretariat. So in practical terms the Commission understands the Council’s desire to use existing financial structures, but only as a provisional measure. In the event that the Council decides to uphold its position, the Commission will back Mr Hernández Mollar’s proposal, which is to reiterate the recitals put forward by the rapporteur so as to make it quite clear that these are merely provisional financial arrangements pending the creation of a single supervisory body responsible for data protection under the three conventions. To conclude, I am delighted that this report and its underlying principles have received such widespread support in the European Parliament."@en1
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