Brussels, 14 December 2022
EU Council presidency and EU Parliament agree to improve information exchange.
The Council Presidency and European Parliament representatives reached a provisional agreement today on a regulation regarding digital information exchange in terrorism cases. The agreed text is subject to approval by the Council and the European Parliament before undergoing the formal adoption procedure.
This draft regulation is part of ongoing efforts to modernise and digitalise cross-border judicial cooperation.
Terrorists know no borders, they build their networks, prepare and perpetrate their attacks across EU member states. To be able to stop them, our judicial authorities also need to have a cross- border view. The new digital system agreed today will allow to better cross-check information and make sure any links are detected, no matter where in the EU a terrorist crime was committed.
Pavel Blažek, Czech Minister for Justice
Currently, member states share information with Eurojust on cases related to terrorism via various channels. This information is then included in the European judicial counter-terrorism register, a technically outdated system that does not allow for proper cross-checking of information.
The proposal aims to remedy these shortcomings and allow Eurojust to play a stronger and more proactive role in supporting coordination and cooperation between national authorities investigating and prosecuting terrorist offences.
Under the proposed rules, member states will need to provide Eurojust with information on any criminal investigations regarding terrorist offences as soon as such cases are referred to the judicial authorities. The proposal:
- creates a modern, digital case-management system which stores this information and allows it to be cross-checked
- empowers Eurojust to better detect links between transnational investigations and prosecutions in the field of terrorism and to proactively inform member states about the links found
- creates a secure digital communication channel between member states and Eurojust
- simplifies cooperation with third countries by granting liaison prosecutors seconded to Eurojust access to the case-management system
- A digital future for Europe (background information)
Source – EU Council
EU Parliament on the deal on new rules for information-sharing to combat terrorism
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Terrorist activities are increasingly transnational
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Parallel investigations in member states should be better coordinated at EU level
The new legislation aims to smoothen information exchanges to combat transnational terrorism in the EU.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU have reached an agreement on new rules for cross-border information sharing to fight and investigate terrorism, which is often transnational in nature. The new legislation would make it easier for the EU’s judiciary agency Eurojust to find links between parallel investigations in different countries, giving it timely access to data and the possibility to cross-reference data.
Modernised case management system
Under current rules, Eurojust receives information from EU countries related to terrorist offences that concern several of them. The new proposal would strengthen the requirements on member states to share this information with Eurojust, making this process more structured. It would also allow Eurojust to store, share and cross-check new types of data, including biometric data, on current and past investigations to establish links between them. Eurojust would have a modernized case management system for secure processing of sensitive data, allowing it to detect cross-border links more effectively. Also, Eurojust could support investigations involving a member state and a third country, or a member state and an international organisation, for example the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In negotiations between the co-legislators, they agreed to strengthen the provisions on data protection, with personal data transfers only allowed where needed to identify individuals. It was also agreed that information would be exchanged with Eurojust at an early stage in investigations, except where this could jeopardise the safety of individuals or the integrity of investigations, and deleted when no longer needed to identify cross-border links. In practice, communication between national authorities and Eurojust would happen through a decentralised system making use of e-CODEX access points.
Quote
Rapporteur Patryk Jaki (ECR, PL) said: « Present-day terrorism is a dynamic, complex, and often transnational phenomenon requiring a robust response and more effective, coordinated EU cooperation. Today, we made a deal to clarify and strengthen the current tools for sharing data on terrorist offences with Eurojust. My objective is to strengthen Eurojust’s mandate, so it can fulfil its role better and more proactively when supporting and strengthening the coordination and the cooperation between the national investigating and prosecuting authorities in relation to serious crime, in particular terrorist offences. For me, greater security in Europe is a priority in the EP. Successful negotiations on this issue bring us closer to this goal. »
Next steps
The decision needs to be endorsed by the Civil Liberties Committee and the full house of the European Parliament, as well as the Council, before it can be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force.