The “point of no return” Interoperability morphs into the creation of a Big Brother centralised EU state database including all existing and future Justice and Home Affairs databases

Abstract:

This Analysis looks at key critiques of EU plans to create a pervasive EU state database covering existing and future Justice and Home Affairs databases. What started out as creating “interconnectivity” between EU JHA databases was quickly rejected by the High Level Group of Experts in favour of “interoperability” which in turns has morphed at the hands of the Council and the Commission into the creation of a centralised
EU state database covering all JHA databases. In fast-moving scenarios the institutions’ argument that only databases concerning non-EU citizens would be affected was undermined by the stated aim to covers all JHA databases (eg: EU PNR, treating all travellers as potential suspects and the ECRIS – European Criminal Records Information System) involving millions of EU citizens.