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Cross-border cooperation (Prüm Treaty)

4
Apr
2007

Cross-border cooperation (Prüm Treaty)

Opinion on the initiative of 15 Member States with a view to adopting a Council Decision on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime, OJ C 169, 21.07.2007, p. 2

The EDPS presented his opinion on the initiative of 15 Member States to make the Treaty of Prüm applicable throughout the EU. The initiative aims to step up cross-border cooperation, particularly for combating terrorism and cross-border crime. The initiative deals with the exchange of biometric data (DNA and fingerprints) and requires member states to set up DNA databases.

Although data protection plays an important role in this Treaty, the provisions on data protection in this initiative are meant as specific ones, on top of a general framework for data protection, which has still not been adopted. Such a framework is needed to give the citizen enough protection, since this decision will make it much easier to exchange DNA and fingerprint data.

Since the Prüm Treaty has already entered into force in three member states, the 15 Member States that took the initiative intend to limit substantial modifications.. Therefore, the EDPS' suggestions mainly serve to improve the text without modifying the system of information exchange itself.

Initiative published in OJ C 71, 28.03.2007, p. 35
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