PURPOSE: to entitle Finland, Slovenia, Romania,
Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary to
continue to receive and supply personal data for the purpose of
automated searching of vehicle registration data (VRD).
PROPOSED ACT: Council Implementing
Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts
the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being
obliged to follow its opinion.
BACKGROUND: Council
Decision 2008/615/JHA on the stepping up of cross-border
cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and
cross-border crime, confers upon the Council implementing
powers with a view to adopting measures necessary to implement that
Decision, in particular as regards the receipt and supply of
personal data provided for under that Decision.
The supply of personal data provided for under that
Decision may not take place until the general provisions on data
protection have been implemented in the national law of the
territories of the Member States involved in such
supply.
Council
Decision 2008/616/JHA provides that the verification that the
condition with respect to automated data exchange has been met is
to be done on the basis of an evaluation report based on: (i) a
questionnaire; (ii) an evaluation visit and a pilot run.
The overall evaluation reports, summarising the
results of the questionnaire, the evaluation visit and the pilot
run concerning vehicle registration data in each of these Member
States, have been presented to the Council.
On the basis of these evaluation reports, Decisions
2010/559/EU, 2011/387/EU, 2011/547/EU, 2012/236/EU, 2012/664/EU,
2012/713/EU, 2013/230/EU, 2013/692/EU and 2014/264/EU authorised
Finland, Slovenia, Romania, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria,
Slovakia and Hungary to receive and supply personal data for the
purposes of the automated searching of vehicle registration
data.
In its judgment of 22 September 2016, the Court of
Justice of the European Union annulled the above-mentioned
Decisions on the grounds that there were vitiated by procedural
defects. With a view to ensuring the legal certainty of the receipt
and supply of personal data with regard to the Member States
concerned, those Decisions should be replaced by the present draft
Decision.
CONTENT: the proposed Council implementing Decision
seeks, for the purpose of automated searching of vehicle
registration data (VRD), to authorise Finland, Slovenia,
Romania, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary
to continue to receive and supply personal data for the purpose
of automated searching of vehicle registration data (VRD) pursuant
to Decision 2008/615/JHA.
Decisions 2010/559/EU, 2011/387/EU, 2011/547/EU,
2012/236/EU, 2012/664/EU, 2012/713/EU, 2013/230/EU, 2013/692/EU and
2014/264/EU cease to produce effects as from the date of entry into
force of this Decision, without prejudice to the validity of
automated data exchange carried out pursuant to those Decisions by
the Member States.
Member States which obtained personal data pursuant to
these Decisions shall continue to be entitled to further process
those data at national level or between Member States for the
purposes laid down in Article 26 of Decision
2008/615/JHA.
The United Kingdom and Ireland shall participate in
the adoption of the proposed Decision.