PURPOSE: to improve the effectiveness of activities to combat terrorism and to boost cooperation between the Member States’ authorities responsible for combating terrorism, Europol and Eurojust.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Decision 2005/671/JHA on the exchange of information and cooperation concerning terrorist offences.

CONTENT: It is essential in the fight against terrorism for the relevant services to have the fullest and most up-to-date information possible in their respective fields, including information on convictions.

The purpose of this Decision is to extend the scope of information exchanged between Member States specialised national services, the judicial authorities Europol and Eurojust. The main points are as follows:

-Each Member State must designate a specialised service within its police services that will have access to and collect all relevant information concerning and resulting from criminal investigations conducted by its law enforcement authorities with respect to terrorist offences and send it to Europol.

-Member States must also designate an appropriate judicial or other competent authority, or more than one, that has access to and can collect all relevant information concerning prosecutions and convictions for terrorist offences and send it to Eurojust.

-The information to be to Europol shall be the following: data which identify the person, group or entity; acts under investigation and their specific circumstances; the offence concerned; links with other relevant cases; the use of communication technologies; the threat posed by the possession of weapons of mass destruction.

-The information to be transmitted to Eurojust shall be the following: data which identify the person, group or entity that is the object of a criminal investigation or prosecution; the offence concerned and its specific circumstances; information about final convictions for terrorist offences and the specific circumstances surrounding those offences; links with other relevant cases; requests for judicial assistance, including letters rogatory, addressed to or by another Member State and the response.

-Each Member State must take measures to ensure that any relevant information seized in the course of criminal investigations or proceedings in connection with terrorist offences can be made accessible as soon as possible, taking account not to jeopardize current investigations, to the authorities of other interested Member States.

-In appropriate cases Member States set up joint investigation teams to conduct criminal investigations into terrorist offences.

-Member States must ensure that requests from other Member States for mutual legal assistance and recognition and enforcement of judgments in connection with terrorist offences are dealt with as a matter of urgency and are given priority.

The Decision applies to Gibraltar.

DATE OF IMPLEMENTATION : 30/06/2006

DATE OF EFFECT : 30/09/2005.

SP(2005)2882

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Antoine DUQUESNE (ALDE, BE) and made some amendments to the Commission’s text. (Please see the summary of 24/05/2005.)

To clarify, the new Article 4c concerns the governing the collection and processing of data. Further new provisions of Article 4 are as follows:

Article 4d: Right of access to data of the person concerned

Article 4f: Remit of the joint personal data protection supervisory authority

Article 4g:Reports by Europol and Eurojust.

T6-0217/2005
OJ C 124 25.05.2006, p. 0021-0223 E

Results of vote in Parliament

Debate in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Antoine DUQUESNE (ALDE, BE) and made some amendments to the Commission’s text. (Please see the summary of 24/05/2005.)

To clarify, the new Article 4c concerns the governing the collection and processing of data. Further new provisions of Article 4 are as follows:

Article 4d: Right of access to data of the person concerned

Article 4f: Remit of the joint personal data protection supervisory authority

Article 4g:Reports by Europol and Eurojust.

T6-0217/2005

A6-0160/2005

A6-0160/2005

The committee adopted the report by Antoine DUQUESNE (ALDE, BE) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure. The amendments were aimed at restructuring and fleshing out the draft decision:

- the committee proposed creating a new Article 1a governing the exchange of information on terrorist offences between police services or other law enforcement agencies;

- Article 2 was amended so that it specifically concerned the provision of information on terrorist offences to Europol and Eurojust;

- new provisions in Article 2 stipulated that information should be provided "about convictions for terrorist offences and the specific circumstances surrounding those offences; if convictions at first instance are overturned on appeal, the requested Member State shall notify the requesting Member State of the modified information without delay". MEPs argued that, although a conviction becomes final only when the time limits for appeals under domestic law have expired, this can lead to substantial delays which render the information useless. It should therefore be possible to provide information about terrorist convictions as soon as the initial judgment has been given;

- Europol and Eurojust should also have access to information about sentences, their execution, disqualifications and the previous criminal records of people or groups who are under criminal investigation, as such information is crucial to the fight against terrorism;

- a new Article 2a stipulated that Europol and Eurojust must be required to review regularly the databases available and to delete information which is no longer relevant to ongoing investigations;

- a new Article 3a specified that each Member State shall accept the jurisdiction of the EC Court of Justice "to give preliminary rulings on the validity and interpretation of this Decision in accordance with Article 35(2) of the TEU";

- new clauses in Article 4 set a 12-hour deadline for the provision of the information requested or, "in the case of information which requires formalities or prior contacts with other authorities, 48 hours if the matter is urgent and otherwise 10 working days";

- a new Article 4a provided for authorities to forward information to each other without being requested "if there are serious objective reasons to believe that the information in question could assist in the prevention, investigation or detection of crimes or criminal activities which are linked to a terrorist offence";

- a new Article 4b made it incumbent on Member States to justify any refusal to suppy information;

- new Articles 4c, 4d, 4e and 4f introduced a series of data protection provisions;

- a new Article 5a required Europol and Eurojust to submit an annual report to Parliament and the Council.

PE357.860

PE349.860

At the meeting of the Council on 2 December 2004, the delegations reached a general approach on a modified text of the proposal for a decision on the exchange of information and cooperation concerning terrorist offences. The amendments aim essentially to clarify the text of the initial proposal and to emphasise the principle of subsidiarity. The principal amendments may be summarised as follows:

- a new recital states that, in the execution of the exchange of information, the Decision is without prejudice to essential national security interests, the jeopardizing of the success of a current investigation or the safety of individuals, or specific intelligence activities in the field of State security;

- the text clarifies the nature of the information to be sent to each recipient; Accordingly, the following information must be sent to Europol:

- data which identify the person, group or entity;

- acts under investigation and their specific circumstances;

- the offence concerned;

- links with other relevant cases;

- the use of communication technologies;

- the threat posed by the possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Information to be transmitted to Eurojust will comprise the following:

- data which identify the person, group or entity that is the object of a criminal investigation or prosecution ;

- the offence concerned and its specific circumstances;

- information about final convictions for terrorist offences and the specific circumstances surrounding these offences;

- links with other relevant cases;

- requests for judicial assistance, including letters rogatory, addressed to or by another Member State and the response.

In addition, Member States have specified that, if their legal systems so provide, they may designate more than one authority as Eurojust national correspondent for terrorism matters, which, in accordance with national law, shall have access to and can collect all relevant information concerning prosecutions and convictions for terrorist offences. In respect of Europol, the competent authority will be a specialised service within the police services of each Member State, or other law enforcement authorities, which, in accordance with national law, will have access to and collect all relevant information concerning criminal investigations conducted by its law enforcement authorities with respect to terrorist offences.

Each Member State must take measures to ensure that any relevant information seized in the course of criminal investigations or proceedings in connection with terrorist offences can be made accessible as soon as possible (and not 'immediately' as foreseen in the Commission's proposal), taking account not to jeopardize current investigations, to the authorities of other interested Member States.

Measures to comply with the Decision must be taken within 9 months of its entry into force.

It should be noted that the French, Irish, Dutch and British delegations still have parliamentary scrutiny reservations.

15599/2004

The Council agreed on a general approach on a Decision on the exchange of information and cooperation concerning terrorist offences. The draft Decision will reinforce Decision 2003/48/JHA of 19 December 2002 on the implementation of specific measures for police and judicial cooperation to combat terrorism.

In executing the exchange of information, this Decision is without prejudice to essential national security interests, the jeopardizing of the success of a current investigation or the safety of individuals, or specific intelligence activities in the field of State security.

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COM(2004)0221
EUR-Lex

COM(2004)0221
EUR-Lex