EU ministers must set high privacy standards for police data access

11.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 8th Nov 2007

As interior and justice ministers gather for a meeting of the EU justice & home affairs Council, Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford has warned that a European Union failure to set high data protection standards for police access to personal data will mean another example of EU doublespeak:

"Just days ago EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove earnestly assured MEPs that enhancing security and protecting freedom were two sides of a coin, and that exchanges of personal data between law enforcement agencies depended on complementary guarantees for individuals. Now is the time for those fine words to bear fruit in the form of an EU law requiring police to respect privacy rights."

"How much longer must we wait for this law, proposed 2 years ago and demanded by MEPs for the last decade? While new proposals for data access and profiling flutter down like confetti, Ministers conveniently drag their feet over safeguards which, without jeopardising criminal investigations, would prevent misuse or mistakes blighting individuals' lives.."

"There will be unnecessary distortions unless data processed only at national level are covered along with cross-border exchanges, and intelligence services as well as police included.. Inadequate limitations on transfer of data to third countries mean that those which practice torture, which sadly include the US, could use the personal data of EU citizens in those abuses."

"With the new EU air passenger data system relying on profiling and data mining like the transatlantic scheme, our citizens urgently need adequate protection. Data mining and profiling on the basis of characteristics like race, belief, or sexual orientation must be outlawed."