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EU: EURODAC-EUROPOL

21 September 2012

Council of the European Union: Note explaining the need for EUROPOL to be able to request the comparison with EURODAC data for the purposes of preventing, detecting and investigating terrorist offences and other serious criminal offences (pdf)

Europol tries to make the case for access to the EURODAC database of the fingerprints of asylum-seekers in order to track down organised criminal gangs, traffickers and victims. It provides two insrtances to back up its case, which were solved without access to EURODAC. No case is made to suggest that its request is proportionate and there is an underlying assumption that all asylum-seekers should be checked to see if they are offenders. It is further impled that Europol, as the "EU criminal information hub", should have access to all personal data wherever it may reside in the EU. See also:

European Data Protection Supervisor: EURODAC: erosion of fundamental rights creeps along (Press release, pdf) and Opinion (pdf): Peter Hustinx, EDPS, says: “Just because the data has already been collected, it should not be used for another purpose which may have a far-reaching negative impact on the lives of individuals. To intrude upon the privacy of individuals and risk stigmatising them requires strong justification and the Commission has simply not provided sufficient reason why asylum seekers should be singled out for such treatment."