Ministers for Internal Affairs reached a controversial agreement for a revision of the Eurodac database. The draft regulation to negotiated with the Parliament
by Emanuele Bonini
Migrants like serial killers? The Council of the EU is ready to start a large-scale profiling operation as response to the migration crisis. It is only about negotiating with the European Parliament, but the controversial decision has been taken: Europe will keep files on asylum seekers arriving in EU territories. The position of the Member States was reached today during the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council. Ministers agreed to recast the Eurodac database in a more comprehensive manner: in addition to fingerprints, according to the draft proposal it will made compulsory the collection of personal data such as names, surnames, nationality and pictures.
The Eurodac database, which was established in 2003, is an EU asylum fingerprint database which provides fingerprint evidence to assist in the application of the Dublin Regulation, which determines the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application made in the EU. Ministers today agreed a common approach to adapt and reinforce the Eurodac system in order to expand its scope, with a view to facilitating returns and helping tackle irregular migration. On the basis of the position of the Council, besides collecting an additional biometric data - facial image, it will also allow member states to store more alphanumeric data in Eurodac, such as names, dates of birth, nationalities, identity details or travel documents of individuals.
The decision is questionable, raising concerns as regard privacy, the storage and the treatment of the information, as well as the legal aspect of the new regime. Basically the Council of the EU is authorising nothing but a measure comparable to a criminal profiling.
Ufficially the general approach is justified by security reasons. The Slovak rotating presidency of the Council stated that the new proposal will extend the scope of the Eurodac Regulation to include «the possibility for Member States to store and search data belonging to third-country nationals or stateless persons who are not applicants for international protection and are found to be staying irregularly in the EU, so that they can be identified for return and readmission purposes».The expansion of the scope and simplification of the access of law enforcement authorities to Eurodac should also help member states maintain security in the EU, according to the ministers. Now it is up to the European Parliament try to change the proposal, once there will be a common negotiating position to oppose the one submitted by the Council today.
Migrants like serial killers? The Council of the EU is ready to start a large-scale profiling operation as response to the migration crisis. It is only about negotiating with the European Parliament, but the controversial decision has been taken: Europe will keep files on asylum seekers arriving in EU territories. The position of the Member States was reached today during the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council. Ministers agreed to recast the Eurodac database in a more comprehensive manner: in addition to fingerprints, according to the draft proposal it will made compulsory the collection of personal data such as names, surnames, nationality and pictures.
The Eurodac database, which was established in 2003, is an EU asylum fingerprint database which provides fingerprint evidence to assist in the application of the Dublin Regulation, which determines the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application made in the EU. Ministers today agreed a common approach to adapt and reinforce the Eurodac system in order to expand its scope, with a view to facilitating returns and helping tackle irregular migration. On the basis of the position of the Council, besides collecting an additional biometric data - facial image, it will also allow member states to store more alphanumeric data in Eurodac, such as names, dates of birth, nationalities, identity details or travel documents of individuals.
The decision is questionable, raising concerns as regard privacy, the storage and the treatment of the information, as well as the legal aspect of the new regime. Basically the Council of the EU is authorising nothing but a measure comparable to a criminal profiling.
Ufficially the general approach is justified by security reasons. The Slovak rotating presidency of the Council stated that the new proposal will extend the scope of the Eurodac Regulation to include «the possibility for Member States to store and search data belonging to third-country nationals or stateless persons who are not applicants for international protection and are found to be staying irregularly in the EU, so that they can be identified for return and readmission purposes».The expansion of the scope and simplification of the access of law enforcement authorities to Eurodac should also help member states maintain security in the EU, according to the ministers. Now it is up to the European Parliament try to change the proposal, once there will be a common negotiating position to oppose the one submitted by the Council today.
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