After having agreed on the legal framework of the interoperability of EU Information Systems designed for border/migration control and police/judicial cooperation (see eucrim 2/2019, p. 103), delegations from the Member States’ governments are now discussing further extensions. The Finnish Council Presidency continued discussions that started earlier this year during the Romanian Presidency to explore further needs of law enforcement and possible EU support (see the discussion paper of 6 September 2019, published by Statewatch).

The Council Presidencies aim at driving forward interoperability through automation. Discussions have, for instance, taken place on possibilities to interconnect queries through the Prüm regime (featuring cross-border access to DNA, dactyloscopic and vehicle registration databases) with the centralised EU information systems. The Council Presidency also referred in this context “to increased interoperability, which means adding possibilities for end users to reach new data sources with a single query.” The latter also means including new data categories into the Prüm regime, e.g., firearms, driving licences, or facial images. Another aspect concerns making data held at Europol interoperable with other EU-level data, where projects are already running.

The discussion paper also mentions other ongoing projects that promote automation and interoperability, such as EPRIS-ADEP − a system for making available certain biographical data contained in national police records.

It concludes that the EU should not stop at the implementation of the agreed interoperability package of May 2019 and a potential reform of the Prüm regime, but take a proactive approach to the future of interoperability.