Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-06-Speech-3-145"
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"en.20070606.16.3-145"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are dealing today with three matters that mark very significant progress in cross-border police cooperation in the realm of European home-affairs policy. The first of these matters is the Prüm Convention, an international agreement that was originally concluded by a small number of Member States – there were initially seven, but a further ten states have subsequently acceded to it. The Convention paved the way for Europe’s first network of national DNA and fingerprint databases and vehicle registers.
On the issues of the scope of the decision and the rules relating to non-EU countries, we shall also find sound solutions. The European Parliament has made a very important contribution in this respect, and I should like to thank you most sincerely again on behalf of the Presidency for your extraordinarily rapid treatment of the revised draft. Particularly with regard to the adequacy of the protection afforded by states outside the Union and the inclusion of a provision on the forwarding of data to non-public bodies, we are on the way to finding effective solutions.
I also believe that the evaluation clause proposed by the European Parliament with regard to the scope of the decision is a thoroughly constructive solution, and we shall use the remaining term of the German presidency to achieve further progress. With his fifteen principles for data protection, Commissioner Frattini helped to ensure that we were able to frame the key provisions in this area. At the Council meeting we shall propose a Council statement and press for due adherence to these principles in subsequent deliberations.
In this way we laid the foundations for a modern information exchange for police forces in Europe while applying high standards of data protection. This Convention that was concluded by some of the Member States is now to become an EU-wide instrument. It is to be incorporated into the legislative framework of the European Union, and its core provisions will apply in all 27 Member States.
We are thereby contributing to the security of the people of Europe, because DNA-matching among a small number of countries has already resulted in the identification of criminals and in convictions for serious crimes. We are also helping to enhance the capacity of the European Union to act, for it is only right that this Convention should no longer be treated as an instrument of international law but as part of our common European legal framework.
I should like to thank all Member States, as well as the European Commission and the Members of the European Parliament, for having helped to clear the way for the replacement of the Convention in spite of a very tight time frame. In converting the Convention into a Council Decision and in implementing that Decision, we shall also take due account of the opinions of the European Parliament.
We shall decide next week on the visa-information system on which we reached political agreement with the European Parliament back in May. Now that an agreement has been reached in Coreper, there is a good chance that the Council will confirm the decision on access next week. A formal agreement will then be concluded once the wording has been checked by the lawyer-linguists.
The visa-information system is a particularly important means of consolidating the area of freedom, security and justice. It will mean that alphanumerical and biometric data can be stored and retrieved during visa procedures. This will help to ensure that we are able to combat multiple visa applications, identity frauds and other forms of deception more effectively than hitherto.
The decision on access to the VIS will also enable security authorities to search the VIS for the purpose of preventing, discovering and investigating terrorist crimes and other serious offences. These new research facilities for the security authorities will be a vital step forward in efforts to protect the public, especially from terrorism and organised crime. Let me stress that the agreement we reached with the European Parliament is a very balanced and sound agreement which reconciles the diverse arguments that have been advanced.
If we manage to improve police cooperation in Europe as these two measures are designed to do, thereby creating more security for our citizens, we must also ensure that data protection is given a high profile in the European Union and that the abuse of data transmitted between Member States is prevented and effectively combated.
For this reason I am delighted that major progress has been achieved in recent weeks on the assignment of the framework decision on data protection to the third pillar, that we were able, with the agreement of the rapporteur of the European Parliament, to deal with a new draft in two readings within the Council working group and that we have sharply reduced the number of the reservations which have been a barrier to rapid progress in the past. This new revised draft guarantees a high level of protection. The protection level prescribed by Council of Europe Convention No 108 of 1981 and by the additional protocol of 2001 will be fully guaranteed."@en1
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