EU justice ministers discuss anti-terror action

Plans to hand over mobile phone and internet records to EU security agencies have been agreed by Europe’s justice ministers – despite privacy concerns.

Measures to combat terrorism topped the agenda at a Brussels council of justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday.

Progress was made on measures to improve information exchanges between member states on criminals, retention of telecoms data and terror financing.

“Progress has been made on the exchange of information extracted from criminal records,” said a spokesman for the Dutch EU presidency.

The flow of information between member states will be “tightened up and streamlined” and information requests must be supplied within a ten day period.

The EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator Gies de Vries stressed that it is “vital for us to discuss cooperation between the intelligence and security agencies.”

“Everybody is convinced that we need to work together on this so that the EU is in a position to respond to threats,” he said following the discussions.

Justice ministers also discussed how to combat the financing of terrorist organisations.

“It is one of the Achilles heels of terrorist organisations – they need financing and we can get to them that way,” said de Vries.

Attending his first JHA council, Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini agreed that “exchange of info will remain a priority for Europe”.

He pointed out that many countries raised concerns for “balance between security and the protection of fundamental human rights”.

“The protection of security and security of citizens is not enough – because we should protect citizens and at the same time respect fundamental rights – this principle of balance is of paramount importance,” he said.

Another topic high on the agenda was the retention of data in the telecoms sector.

In guiding their future work in the area ministers agreed to opt for a high level of data retention despite concerns from a number of member states.

At present service providers across the EU retain differing amounts of information for commercial reasons.

Under the new guidelines providers will be required to retain “certain data for a certain period” said the spokesman without further elaboration.

The council discussion revealed major differences between member state approaches, several raising concerns surrounding proportionality, the need to protect personal data and costs.

Elsewhere, MEPs have failed to back a move to take compulsory finger scans of EU citizens pushed by the European Commission and national governments.

The European Parliament has supported measures to include digital facial images on EU passports.

But in a non-binding vote MEPs refused to accept pressure to include digital finger scans – a proposal that will lead to compulsory fingerprinting by 2006.

The parliament has opposed moves to set up a central EU database of passports – holding facial and fingerprint data.

“Such a database would increase the risk of abuse and function creep,” noted MEPs.

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