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Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) considers that the changes on the legal basis of Europe's police (Europol) proposed by the European Parliament meant to increase its powers have to be accompanied by proper data protection rules.
The European Parliament has proposed changes that would increase Europol powers in order to fight radical Islamic terrorism, considered as the highest threat to the security in Europe.
The EDPS thinks that, before increasing these powers, Europol data protection policies and data exchange rules should be more consistent and fair.
"We have to make sure that exchange with other EU bodies, such as OLAF (the European Anti Fraud Agency), will be based on a consistent level of data protection and good co-operation in supervision," said Hustinx.
Some of his recommendations were that specific conditions and limitations should be included in the decision regarding information obtained from private parties, to ensure the accuracy of these data. Strict conditions and guarantees should be applied in cases of interoperability with other processing systems.
He also recommended that data processing should be limited to the relevance assessment for personal data for which the relevance has not been assessed and that safeguards should be provided for the access to data of people with no criminal records.
"Computerised access and retrieval of data from other national and international information systems should be allowed only on a case by case basis, under strict conditions." Hustinx advised.
He also believes that if Europol gets involved in pan-European data sharing, guarantees must be provided on the independence of its data protection officer who is responsible for Europol's lawful data processing.
The EDPS ended his statement by stating he would himself "oversee any information transfer to Europol from European Commission institutions".
Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the Proposal for a
Council Decision establishing the European Police Office (16.02.2007)
http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/...
New Europol powers need new protection, says watchdog (22.02.2007)
http://www.out-law.com/page-7798