§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement concerning progress towards agreement on the draft convention to establish Europol; and if he will make a statement on United Kingdom objections to the current version of the draft. [27006]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythIn Essen on 9 and 10 December 1994 the European Council asked for work on the draft convention to be completed before its meeting in Cannes on 26 and 27 June this year. Good progress has been made under the French presidency. The Justice and Home Affairs Council will consider the outstanding issues on 20 and 21 June.
A copy of the current draft of the convention was sent to the appropriate parliamentary committees on 31 May under cover of an explanatory note. The United Kingdom is general content with the draft. We have reservations recorded against the text of articles 13 and 21 relating respectively to:
- (i) a Belgian proposal to amend the text so as to use the Europol Convention as a vehicle for extending to paper files, for the first time, particular data protection measures previously agreed only in respect of automatic data processing. This is not a reservation against the convention text itself;
- (ii) drafting aspects of the test relating to the role of national data protection authorities and the joint supervisory body.
A number of outstanding articles in the current text are blank—these relate to data protection and institutional questions. Intensive negotiations are underway to reach agreement between member states on these issues.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement concerning the status of the Council of Europe recommendation on the use of personal data in the police sector [R(87) (15)1 with respect to the draft convention to establish Europol. [27002]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythArticle 13 of the draft convention requires member states and Europol to take account of the Council of Europe recommendation.