The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Claude MORAES (S&D, UK) on the recommendation, by the Commission, for a Council decision authorising the opening of negotiations for an agreement between the European Union and the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria on the exchange of personal data between the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the Algerian competent authorities for fighting serious crime and terrorism.
The report stressed the need for cooperation with Algeria in the field of law enforcement for the European Unions security interests to be properly assessed and called on the Commission to conduct a thorough impact assessment on this issue.
Consequently, Members considered that due caution is needed while defining the negotiating mandate for an EU-Algeria agreement. They called on the Commission to carry out an appropriate impact assessment so as to define the necessary safeguards to be integrated in the agreement.
The report insisted that the level of protection resulting from the agreement should be essentially equivalent to the level of protection in EU law. If such level cannot be guaranteed both in law and in practice, the agreement cannot be concluded.
In particular, the Agreement shall contain:
Members insisted on the need to:
Taking into account Algeria's different societal characteristics and cultural background compared to the EU and the fact that criminal acts are defined differently in the EU than in Algeria, Members considered that the transfer of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data or data concerning a persons health and sex life should only take place in very exceptional cases and be subject to clear safeguards for the data subject and persons linked to the data subject.
Lastly, the report stressed that the European Parliaments consent to the conclusion of the agreement will be conditional upon satisfactory involvement of the European Parliament at all stages of the procedure.