Cross border police cooperation needed, says Commission

The plans, which take the form of a Commission proposal for a Council Decision, aim to extend the circumstances in which cross border surveillance and cross border pursuit can be carried out.

The proposals will require an amendment to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, an agreement that allows citizens from participating Member States to travel throughout the area covered by the Agreement without being subjected to checks at internal borders.

The Schengen Agreement has also enabled enforcement agencies throughout Europe to have access to a database of reports on individuals and objects, such as cars, for border control purposes, internal police checks and in some cases for the purpose of issuing visas, residence permits and dealing with those whom the system defines as aliens.

At present, internal borders between 13 of the original 15 Member States (excluding the UK and Ireland) and Norway and Iceland, are covered by the Schengen Information System (SIS), created as a result of the Agreement.

But the Commission is in the process of updating the SIS, in light of the EU expansion last year, and a changing political environment, caused largely by 9/11 and the Madrid and London bombings. Yesterday it proposed further amendments to the Convention, in order to improve police cooperation between Member States.

“Free movement of persons within the Schengen area,” declared Vice President of the Commission Franco Frattini, in charge of Freedom, Justice and Security, “requires action to counter security deficits caused by the abolition of border controls, as perpetrators of criminal acts are equally able to move as freely as law abiding citizens. Impunity caused by obstacles to cooperation must be removed”.

According to the Commission, the impact of the permeable coexistence of different jurisdictions is most felt in everyday police work in border regions. The need for appropriate cooperation mechanisms is therefore most acute in those regions.

The proposed measures intend to strengthen and improve information exchange on request or on the own initiative of national law enforcement services, building on the experience that has been gained over the past decade in the context of the SIS.

But data protection will still be a priority: all information requests must comply with the relevant legal provisions laid down in the Schengen Convention, says the Commission.

The measures also focus on structural coordination between the relevant agencies, including the interoperability of equipment, in particular in communications and surveillance technology, and joint training schemes, such as work visits, exchange programmes and language training.

The proposals also consider operational cooperation, including joint patrols as well as joint intervention and surveillance operations, providing assistance in the establishment of joint investigation teams in border regions, and assigning police task to liaison officers or to officials of the other Member States.

Finally, the proposals provide for a regulatory Committee to assist the Commission and lay down its tasks. The Committee will be manned by representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the Commission, who will submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken.