EU JHA Reports on Exchange of Information and Asylum/Immigration

On October 1, 2004, the European Union Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA Council) held an informal meeting in Scheveningen to prepare the multi-annual program for the areas of freedom, security, and justice in the EU. While no formal decisions are taken at such informal meetings, the ministers have reached political agreement on a number of areas on the direction of the future development of the multi-annual program, specifically improving exchange of information and strengthening its asylum/immigration policies. The participants agreed that the exchange of information between law enforcement agencies must be improved and it must be a rule to share required information among themselves so that they may fulfil their tasks. The transnational character of the EU must not pose an obstacle to the exchange of data. The exchange must meet the following important conditions: it must be necessary for the fulfilment of tasks; the data must be of good quality; the data may not be transmitted to the wrong persons; and citizens must be protected from misuse of the data...[more]