Europol

The committee voted again and adopted some twenty amendments. These amendments do not alter the main thrust of the report; however, the new text specifically calls for the national parliaments not to ratify the EUROPOL convention until powers to give preliminary rulings have been conferred upon the European Court of Justice. The members also adopted a number of amendments to strengthen guarantees to citizens concerning the protection of personal data held in EUROPOL files: by banning the registration of data on political affiliation, religious belief, race etc. provided by a third country or another organization, by calling for provision to be made for courts and lawyers to check the data, by calling for the time at which data are to be deleted to be precisely defined etc. Members called for the convention to be reviewed within two years of ratification with a view to transferring investigative powers to EUROPOL and ensuring that its operational powers were subject to the instructions of the Commission and that EUROPOL was made accountable to the European Parliament and national parliaments. Members also stressed that this revision should not take place until the powers of the Court of Justice to give preliminary rulings had been recognized. The new text was adopted by 25 votes to 4 with 1 abstention.�