Supplementary evidence by the Home Office
Question 45—Europol Management Board
With regard to the question about the number
of times the Europol Management Board meets, our response still
stands, but some additional information might interest the Committee.
Article 28(9) of the Europol Convention states that the Management
Board "shall meet at least twice a year". This provision
has been carried forward in the new Europol Council Decision (article
36(5)) but a further proposal by the Commission in the original
text of the draft Council Decision—to limit the number of
Management Board meetings to "no more than four times each
year" was rejected by Member States as being too limiting
(notwithstanding the extra provision proposed for the Chair of
the MB to be able to call extraordinary meetings).
Question 47—Frontex
We have been advised that there are no current
plans for Frontex to deal with personal data, but that said, a
secure Frontex Information System (FIS) will be developed which
will allow effective exchange with Europol of classified, strategic
information and intelligence related to illegal immigration. Frontex's
remit does not permit the Agency to store, develop, analyse or
disseminate personal data and it does not deal with operational
intelligence but only with strategic information and intelligence.
Any tactical intelligence, obtained for example during the course
of a Frontex coordinated joint operation and relevant to Europol's
remit, would be passed on to Europol through the Europol National
Unit in the relevant country.
FIS is part of the establishment of a much wider
ICT programme within the Agency and is in the early stages of
development with a feasibility study still under preparation.
We are not able to get any idea of a timescale for completion
of the FIS development, but we are advised that potential contractors
are being identified against which a procurement competition will
be run "some time this year".
Ben Judah
Head—Police Co-operation and Crime Section,
International Directorate, Home Office
13 June 2008
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