EU ministers fall behind Government's drive for more data sharing and cooperation
Justice and interior ministers of the European Union Member States have set in train urgent anti-terrorism measures that will accelerate plans for data retention, cross-referencing of border control IT systems and the roll out of biometric technologies.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke spearheaded a push for greater EU co-operation on information sharing at an emergency ministerial meeting on 13 July following the London bombings.
The EU ministers agreed a 10-point declaration with an immediate priority to push forward measures to strengthen law enforcement agencies' investigative powers.
This include specific actions and timetables, including a October 2005 target date for introducing controversial plans for compulsory storage of individuals' internet access and telephone records.
A number were already proposed after the Madrid bombings in 2004, but at a press conference after the meeting, Mr Clarke said the London attacks had given fresh impetus for renewed action.
"We had an extremely good discussion this afternoon which agreed, I think, a very strong statement to say that all of us across the European Union are absolutely determined to accelerate our work to make terrorism more difficult", he said.
"It focuses around a wide range of different exchanges of data and information, ether on stolen explosives, on communications data, on operational cooperation between different forces."
The declaration calls on EU countries to agree common security standards for identity cards by December 2005 and to prioritise the use of biometrics in visa applications.
It also urges work on "enhanced interaction" between the EU law enforcement databases of SIS II, the 'second-generation' Schengen Information System, the Visa Information System and EURODAC, which stores asylum seekers' fingerprints.
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