Europe under fire over fingerprint database

National law enforcement agencies across the EU may soon tap into a massive centrally accessible database that would store the fingerprints of each member state's career criminals.



The prints of top offenders and suspects in all 27 nations would be stored on a new e-warehouse, yet they would be confined to serious crimes such as organised crime, terrorism and murder.



The proposals, tabled by the European Commission, have drawn opposition from civil liberties groups and MEPs, who said on Thursday that they amount to 'Euro Big Brother run riot.'



The attack seems to stem from reports that officials want police to e-submit the prints of not just criminals, but also of people who were arrested but later released without charge.



Adding controversy to the proposal, which is buried deep inside the Commission's 2008 strategy, is a recent pledge to cap the future use of single point databases.



In fact, under the Hague programme of 2004 "new centralised European databases should only be created on the basis of studies that have shown their added value."



However the FT reported on Saturday that any e-warehouse for fingerprints would complicate another data-sharing regime, which the paper cited EU governments as working to agree on.



This scheme would reportedly allow police forces on the continent to access each other's databases for criminals' fingerprints, car registration numbers and DNA profiles.



Already applied by Germany, France and Spain, this system does not allow direct access to the information, rather police cross-check samples before contacting their foreign colleagues direct.



"We are bombarded with proposals for police or intelligence services' access to EU immigration or border control databases," said Baroness Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP.



"Doubts about respect for the proclaimed EU principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law will explode with the European Commission's startling announcement - long suspected but now openly proclaimed - that it intends to create a centralised database of fingerprints."



Without safeguards to block unauthorised access and transfer of fingerprints, approved personnel could go on "fishing expeditions" and record "erroneous suspicions," she added.



"Has this 'Euro Big Brother run riot' really got the approval of the Commissioners' group on fundamental rights? In the absence of legal force for the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights Europe's citizens are deprived of the level of fundamental rights protection that they expect."



Reflecting on the proposal, which requires the backing of all 27 member states, Neil O'Brien of Open Europe told The Times: "If you are collecting a centralised database, there will then be rules about how you collect fingerprints, which have implications for how you handle different kinds of crimes.



"Who decides who controls access to this information? A lot of people will feel this is the start of Big Brother Europe."