Data dangers top the bill as EU justice ministers meet

Jul 17, 2009, 8:40 GMT

Stockholm - The challenge of gathering more and more security information on European Union citizens while still protecting their privacy topped the bill on Friday as EU justice ministers met in Stockholm.

'When it comes to individual rights, it's of concern that (data) integrity is assured ... so I guess a lot of ministers will mention that,' Sweden's justice minister, Beatrice Ask, said as she arrived at the meeting.

Ask was hosting and chairing the meeting because Sweden currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

In that capacity, she is tasked with overseeing the creation of the so-called Stockholm Programme, a five-year plan aimed at making legal cooperation between EU member states more efficient.

One key element of the programme is a proposal to set up an agency to oversee the various computer systems the EU uses to share security information on visa applicants, travellers and criminal cases.

'The advantage is that things will be handled more professionally than today: when you have these questions one at a time, sometimes it gets very expensive and it's not professionally taken care of,' Ask said.

That is particularly true of the EU's programme to share complex data on people travelling within the Schengen border-free zone, known as SIS II, which is years overdue and millions of euros over budget.

The idea of creating an agency to oversee SIS II, the EU's visa information system, VIS, and its database of fingerprints, Eurodac, has raised accusations that the bloc is trying to create a 'Big Brother' surveillance system.

But Ask rejected that fear, saying, 'The thing is not that you want to collect a lot of information in one place, which is a danger, it's how to govern and to secure different sorts of information.'

The informal meeting, which was tasked with debating the broad outlines of the Stockholm Programme ahead of detailed discussions in the autumn, was also set to analyse how EU citizens living outside their home country in another EU state could be given better access to legal services such as courtroom interpretation.

'We have to make sure that the European who is accused in the case has someone next to him who can explain the case in his language,' German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said.

Justice and interior ministers are expected to finalize the Stockholm Programme by the end of the year.