PURPOSE: to authorise Croatia to receive and supply vehicle registration data (VRD).
PROPOSED ACT: Council Implementing Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.
BACKGROUND: in accordance with Decision 2008/615/JHA on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime, the supply of personal data provided for under that Decision may not take place until the general provisions on data protection have been implemented in the national law of the territories of the Member States involved in such supply.
Council Decision 2008/616/JHA on the implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA provides that the verification that the condition has been met with respect to automated data exchange is to be done on the basis of an evaluation report based on a questionnaire, an evaluation visit and a pilot run.
Croatia completed the questionnaire on data protection and the questionnaire on vehicle registration data (VRD) exchange. A successful pilot run was carried out by Croatia with the Netherlands. An evaluation visit took place in Croatia.
On 19 December 2016, the Council, having noted the agreement of all Member States bound by Decision 2008/615/JHA, concluded that Croatia had fully implemented the general provisions on data protection set out in Chapter 6 of Decision 2008/615/JHA.
CONTENT: the draft Council Implementing Decision seeks to authorise Croatia, for the purposes of automated searching of vehicle registration data, to receive and supply personal data pursuant to Decision 2008/615/JHA as from the date of the entry into force of this Decision.
Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland shall participate in the adoption and application of the proposed Decision.