DNA database agreed for police across EU

A battery of police data-sharing and electronic surveillance measures to tackle transnational crime and immigration issues was agreed yesterday by governments in Europe, 15 of which also gave the green light to a scheme for the world's biggest biometric system. The system will store and allow sharing of data such as the photographs and fingerprints of up to 70 million non-EU citizens applying for visas to enter Europe. Interior ministers from all 27 EU countries also agreed on automatic access to genetic information, fingerprints, and car registration details in police databases across the union. The accord, set in Luxembourg, Germany, and propelling a 2005 treaty into EU law, means police forces in one country will be able to enter the DNA details of a suspect in a European database, then obtain police information from another country if the DNA record hits a match elsewhere. Germany, which has been driving the data-sharing campaign for the past six months, hailed the accord as "an important day for Europe." Wolfgang Schäuble, the German interior minister, said the pact was an "important element of a European information network." The Germans and Austrians have been sharing DNA information on criminal suspects since December. UK Conservatives criticized the data-sharing pact. "We are sleepwalking into Big Brother Europe while our government stands idly by," said Tory member of European Parliament Syed Kamall. The British shadow home secretary, David Davis, accused the British Home Office of incompetence. "How exactly will our European counterparts ensure that the personal details of British citizens remain safe?" The biometric database for visas from non-EU applicants is said to be aimed at "visa shopping." An applicant refused a visa by a member state will automatically be disqualified from seeking a visa to any of 13 countries in the border-free travel zone of the EU called the Schengen area. Franco Frattini, the European immigration commissioner, said the new visa system should be in place by early 2009.