Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-08-Speech-2-282"
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"en.20030408.8.2-282"2
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"Mr President, I want to speak on the linked issues of data protection and parliamentary accountability. The joint supervisory authority responsible for data protection is composed of a Member from each Member State. It is supposed to ensure that Europol respects the Convention's provisions on data protection. It has to review the activities of Europol in order to ensure that the rights of individuals are not violated by the storage, processing and utilisation of data held. It must monitor the permissibility of the transmission of data originating from Europol. It submits regular reports to the Council.
The Convention itself, in several Council acts, lays down rules on the use of data and the communication of that data to third states and bodies. But to judge from the evidence given by the UK Member of the joint supervisory body to the House of Lords European Select Committee, we have reason to ask if we can have total confidence in the thoroughness with which the joint supervisory authority is doing its job. I therefore fully support the recommendation in the reports we are debating that this authority should report to both the Council and Parliament and should be available for questioning before the relevant committee, which would be the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs.
The evidence that worried me was given last November. Mr Francis Aldhouse, the Deputy Information Commissioner in the UK, was responding to questions about the Europol-US agreement on exchange of personal data. He discussed the difficulty of evaluating the adequacy of data protection in the United States – because they have no federal law or data protection authority, but rely largely on case-law, judicial supervision and audit. He expressed concern at the very wide provisions for transfer of data and the potential for abuse in the Europol-US agreement. But then, abdicating any responsibility for being vigilant and active, he concluded: 'I think we ought to take the view, particularly as between Western European countries and the United States, that here is a set of countries which take a pride in abiding by the rule of law and will honour their agreements. I share the view of my JSB colleagues that this is acceptable.' – i.e. that we trust the guys. I do not believe it is responsible for him to abdicate responsibility like this, and he is the UK Member on the joint supervisory body.
The House of Lords was not impressed either and urged the body to adopt a robust approach to the protection of personal data in third country agreements. By requesting accountability to the European Parliament we can help ensure this, although we must also have partnership with national parliaments. A joint committee of European and national parliaments would be an excellent way forward."@en1
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