Europese Commissie keurt tweede controle- en evaluatierapport goed over gemeenschappelijk beleid inzake uitwisseling informatie over gestolen en verloren paspoorten (en)
The European Commission has adopted its second monitoring and evaluation report on the operation of a Common Position that obliges Member States to exchange data about lost and stolen passports with Interpol. The report shows that all Member States now contribute to and search Interpol's Lost & Stolen Travel Document database.
Vice-President Jacques Barrot, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security underlined the significance of the Common Position to prevent and combat serious and organised crime, including terrorism, and welcomed the substantial implementation.
"This report clearly demonstrates that all EU Member States are making a remarkable contribution to global efforts to tackle organised crime and terrorism. The latest figures provided by Interpol, show that the data provided by EU Member States represent more than 2/3 of the total number of entries in the Interpol database and carry out approximately 50% of the total searches of the database. The report will makes some recommendations aimed at ensuring an even more operationally efficient functioning of the Common Position, especially as regards the provision of background information following a successful "hit" in the Interpol database."
Main conclusions of the report show that progress was made in the five areas of the Common Position: 1. to exchange all present and future passport data with Interpol, 2. to ensure that such data is exchanged with Interpol immediately after it has been entered into the national database or in the Schengen Information System (SIS), 3. to only share such data with Interpol members that have an adequate level of protection for personal data, 4. to ensure that the competent law enforcement authorities of EU Member States use the Interpol database to access such information when appropriate for the performance of their task and to set up the required infrastructures to facilitate consultation and 5. to ensure that the competent law enforcement authorities take up the required action in case that a positive identification (hit) occurred.
The Commission has noticed a substantial improvement in the operation of the Common Position since the 2006 Report. Member States have taken various steps in order to comply with their obligations. However, the implementation of the Common Position in the fullest sense of the term is still incomplete and requires a more proactive and committed effort on the part of the Member States.
The Common Position aims at preventing the use of lost or stolen documents by criminals. Since modern modes of transport allows crossing distances rapidly, it is essential that travel documents are introduced in the Interpol database immediately after they are reported stolen or lost. It is therefore relevant to note that the vast majority of Member States have ensured or are committed to, that the Interpol database will be automatically updated after data were introduced in the national database or SIS.
The Commission recommends Member States to step up efforts to ensure respect of the requirements as regards the protection of personal data from the very beginning of contributing to or consulting the Interpol database and to chose to limit the recipients of its data on issued passports in order to comply with the obligations of the Common Position.
Moreover, the Commission has highlighted in its report that most Member States are not yet making optimum use of this valuable information resource, since they use the database chiefly for criminal investigations and not yet for border control purposes.
Member States themselves have identified three issues as of outmost importance to the efficient and speedy following-up of successful identification of a passport in the database. In the first place adequate round-the-clock staffing of the contact point that queries the database, providing this instance with direct access to the national passport database and images of passport holders, and in the third place, to adopt some standards as regards such requests for follow-up like agreeing on a maximum response time.
The first Commission report was adopted on 21 April 2006. The Council will now discuss the report and decide on its appropriate follow-up.
JLS web-site: