MEPs Against UK’s Post-Brexit Participation in Fingerprint Data Exchange Scheme

European Union Members of Parliament have once again raised their voices against the participation of the United Kingdom in the EU’s fingerprint data exchange scheme after the UK is officially a non-EU member country.

Last Thursday, the MEPs part of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee have backed a report recommending to the Parliament not to grant the UK access to a sharing mechanism for fingerprint data, the 2005 Prüm treaty. The treaty which outlines rules for police cooperation between EU member states in the field of information exchange.

According to the Spanish Socialist Juan Fernando López Aguilar, who is the Parliament’s Rapporteur on the motion, Britain’s lacks the commitment to abide by the principle of reciprocity underlined in the Prüm decision. He bases his statements on the fact that the UK does not intend to make fingerprint data of suspects’ profiles available for the EU27.

“We would like the UK to move our way … to move forward to European Union standards for the sake of building up a future relationship that is mutually beneficial and thus not giving any space for the advantage of not being a member of the European Union and yet enjoying all the information tools,” López Aguilar said.

His draft report asserts, among others, that granting the UK with access to the EU’s fingerprint data “would create serious risks for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals”.

In a statement following the vote Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer said that the unwillingness in UK’s side to to respect the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Justice, is proof that there is no basis for a deal to an exchange of personal data.

“There are also the excessive mass surveillance programmes of the UK and the massive violations in using the Schengen Information System, which put the freedom of individuals and also our collective security at risk. Today’s rejection is good news for the protection of privacy in Europe,” he said.

The EU Member States praised the position of the Civil Liberties committee.

Since the UK decided to leave the EU block, its leaders have continuously attempted to retain access to the EU’s security and data systems.

SchengenVisaInfo.com reported last month on a leaked document on the assessment of the United Kingdom’s position in the final leave agreement, drafted by the German government, according to which the British negotiators were making impossible demands over access to EU databases in the negotiations over the future relationship with the EU.

According to this report Britain wants to “approximate the position of a member state as closely as possible” when it comes to accessing EU’s law enforcement agency Europol, including continued access to Europol’s central intelligence database (EIS).

The UK also demanded access on other databases, as the Schengen Information System (SIS II), a database used by European border control agencies, despite fresh accusations that the UK had misused the latter, to which it has had partial access so far.