Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council – Strengthening law enforcement cooperation in the EU: the European Information Exchange Model (EIXM)

Ensuring a high level of security within the EU and Schengen area requires that criminal networks be tackled by concerted European action. This is needed to address not just serious and organised crime, such as trafficking in human beings, illicit drugs or firearms, but also less serious offences committed on a large scale by mobile organised crime groups and crimes committed by individual offenders across Member State borders.

Exchanging information between Member States is in this context an essential tool for law enforcement authorities. International and bilateral arrangements have therefore been supplemented by EU instruments and systems, such as the Schengen Information System and the Europol Information System, with in-built safeguards to protect privacy and personal data in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

This Communication takes stock of how the resulting cross-border information exchange in the EU works today, and makes recommendations for how to improve it. It concludes that information exchange generally works well, and examples of successful results are given to illustrate this. No new EU-level law enforcement databases or information exchange instruments are therefore needed at this stage. However, the existing EU instruments could and should be better implemented, and the exchanges should be organised more consistently.

The Communication accordingly sets out recommendations to Member States for how to improve the implementation of existing instruments and streamline the communication channels used. It emphasises the need to ensure high data quality, security and protection. It also explains how the Commission will provide support, including funding and training, for Member States. In this way, it provides a model for guiding EU and Member State activity.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)735: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:735:FIN

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