Police cooperation: Council gives green light to better data exchanges

The Council adopted a regulation on the automated search and exchange of data for police cooperation.

The new law will improve the existing framework – often referred to as Prüm I – which already allows law enforcement authorities to consult the national databases of other member states as regards DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data.

The rules agreed today will broaden the data categories for which automated exchanges can happen. Police authorities will be able to also search for facial images and police records. Moreover, if allowed by national law, searches across all categories to find missing persons or identify human remains will also be possible.

Other innovations include that Europol will now also be able to search national databases to cross-check information it has received from third countries and the establishment of a modernised IT infrastructure.

Next steps

This new law will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The regulation is directly applicable in the EU member states.