4.2.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 32/15

1.

On 7 December 2012, the Commission adopted a Communication entitled ‘Strengthening law enforcement cooperation in the EU: the European Information Exchange Model (EIXM)’ (hereinafter: ‘the Communication’) (1). On the same day, the Commission adopted a report on the implementation of Council Decision 2008/615/JHA of 23 June 2008 on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime (the ‘Prüm Decision’) (2). This report will not be separately commented in this Opinion, but is mentioned here in order to better understand the context.

2.

Before the adoption of the Communication, the EDPS was given the opportunity to provide informal comments. The EDPS welcomes that some of his comments have been taken into account in the Communication.

3.

The Stockholm Programme (3) aims at meeting future challenges and further strengthening the area of freedom, security and justice with actions focusing on the interests and needs of citizens. It establishes the EU's priorities in the field of justice and home affairs for the period of 2010-2014 and defines strategic guidelines for legislative and operational planning within the area of freedom, security and justice in accordance with Article 68 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) (4).

4.

In particular, the Stockholm Programme acknowledges the need for coherence and consolidation in developing information management and exchange in the field of EU internal security and invites the Council and the Commission to implement the Information Management Strategy for EU internal security, including a strong data protection regime. In this context, the Stockholm Programme also invites the Commission to assess the need for a European Information Exchange Model (EIXM) based on evaluation of existing instruments in the field of EU information exchange. This assessment should help to determine whether these instruments function as originally intended and meet the goals of the Information Management Strategy (5).

5.

Following-up the Stockholm Programme, the Commission published a Communication in July 2010 (hereafter the ‘Communication of 2010’) (6) which provides a full overview of the EU-level measures in place, under implementation or consideration, that regulate the collection, storage or cross-border exchange of personal information for the purpose of law enforcement and migration management.

6.

Answering the invitation of the Stockholm Programme and building on the Communication of 2010, the present Communication aims to take stock of how the cross-border information exchange in the EU works in practice and to recommend possible improvements.

37.

The EDPS appreciates the general attention devoted to data protection in the Communication which emphasises the need to ensure high data quality, data security and data protection and recalls that whatever the combination or sequence used for exchanging information, the rules on data protection, data security and data quality as well as the purpose for which the instruments may be used must be respected.

38.

The EDPS also: