Activities of Tineke STRIK related to 2022/2025(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION recommendations on the negotiations for a cooperation agreement between the European Union and the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-Interpol)
Amendments (22)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Citation 9 a (new)
Citation 9 a (new)
— having regard to its Resolution of 16 September 2021 on the case of human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor in the United Arab Emirates (P9_TA(2021)0390),
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas Interpol is the world’s largest international criminal police organisation and has an important role to play all over; whereas the EU as the largest donor of funds to Interpol has an important role to play in influencing the functioning of the worldganization, notably in improving its transparency and accountability;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas in December 2021, the Commission entered into negotiations on behalf of the EU on an international agreement seeking reinforced cooperation with Interpol, including access to the organisation’s databases and strengthening operational and strategic cooperation; whereas the Commission expects to conclude these negotiations by the end of 2022;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the agreement would allow the EU agencies to access Interpol’s databases in line with their mandates and to respond to operational neeshould conform with the EU's data protection regime and human rights standards;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the Interoperability Regulation (EU) 2019/818 explicitly prevents the transfer of or making available personal data to any third country, to any international organization or to any private party;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas Interpol has reformed and strengthened the review processes for its red notices; whereas, however, serious concerns remain that data sharing is being abused by authoritarian statthird countries to persecute human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, civil society activists and political opponents through deliberate targeting and other forms of abuse;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas politically motivated red notices and diffusions are enabling authoritarian governmentregimes to persecute human rights defenders and political and other opponents beyond their border, civil society activists, journalists, lawyers and political opponents in violation of international human rights standards;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas the European Parliament expressed deep concern about the candidacy and election as Interpol’s president of General Inspector of the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior, Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi; whereas on 11 May 2022, investigations for claims of torture have been opened in France against Interpol’s president;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that cooperation and information sharing are important tools to combat crime and terrorism and pursue justice, but need to be targeted and used with common safeguards and checksin full conformity with international human rights standards and with the principles of necessity, proportionality and legality;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Believes that it is paramount to ensure that the final agreement strikes a reasonable balance between preventing impunity for serious crimes andguarantees the respecting of the rights of persons whose data is exchanged by or with Interpol, notably their rights to data protection and privacy and their right to a fair trial;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Deplores the lack of an ex ante human rights impact assessment by the Commission prior to the launch of the negotiations of the agreement; calls for such an assessment to be carried out as a matter of urgency and for the recommendations to be binding; calls for the results of the human rights impact assessment to be shared with the co- legislators;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Member States to honour the commitment they made in the framework of Europol cooperation and to support Interpol in promoting and enhancing existingthe highest level of human rights standards;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Acknowledges the risk ofUnderscores the data misuse by some Interpol members; underlines the need, therefore, for the EU and Interpol to take more effective action against Interpol members by suspending those that fail to respect international law and Interpol’s own rules, thereby denying them of access to EU and other third country databases;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Expresses its strong concerns regarding the recent appointment of Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi as President of Interpol and the impact its nomination may have in terms of fundamental rights, as well as the functioning and credibility of the organisation; insists that the Commission and the Member States press the organisation to ensure transparency and robust vetting procedures for the selection of Interpol's leadership;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Strongly condemns the abuse by some states of Interpol’s notice and diffusion system in order to persecute opponents beyond their borders; political opponents, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and civil society activists beyond their borders; considers that the recent reform of the notice review process as insufficient to effectively address this phenomenon and to ensure accountability and transparency of this process;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Condemns the decision to readmit Syria to Interpol databases in October 2021, considering the significant risk of the Syrian regime to misuse Interpol structures to target dissidents; calls on the Commission and EU Member States to urge for a review of this decision and for the implementation of mitigating measures to limit the risk of abuse;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point a
Paragraph 6 – point a
a. ensure that no personal data is transferred by EU bodagencies to Interpol is sufficiently protected from misuse, by including adequate safeguards in the agreementand that no direct or indirect access is granted to Interpol and third countries to EU databases;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point a a (new)
Paragraph 6 – point a a (new)
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point d
Paragraph 6 – point d
d. increase transparency, for instancenotably by disclosing statistical data on how many requests for red noticesInterpol alerts are received and refused annually (including reasons for refusals);
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point e a (new)
Paragraph 6 – point e a (new)
e a. ensure that the agreement upholds the rights to administrative and judicial redress for any person whose data are protected under this agreement and guarantees effective remedies;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point f a (new)
Paragraph 6 – point f a (new)
f a. require further human and financial resources are made available for the ex ante and ex post control of notices and diffusions within Interpol's Secretariat General;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 – point f b (new)
Paragraph 6 – point f b (new)
f b. write an annual implementation report regarding these recommendations and report back to the European Parliament concerning progress;