Cyprus has taken ample measures in the fight against terrorism, a press release issued on Friday said, following the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, to which the Republic was represented by Justice and Public Order Minister Ionas Nicolaou.
The press release noted that Cyprus focused this year on upgrading the controls at the external borders through the necessary infrastructure at its ports and airports, with a view to automatically provide information to European and international databases.
Furthermore, it is added, it has taken steps for the direct connection of its law enforcement authorities with Europol`s information systems and has taken measures for the closest cooperation between the Republic’s police and intelligence service, as well as targeted measures for the security of the airports and aircraft.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council approved on Friday the compromise text agreed with the European Parliament on the proposal for a directive on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offenses and serious crime.
The directive aims to regulate the transfer from the airlines to the member states of PNR data of passengers of international flights, as well as the processing of this data by the competent authorities. The directive establishes that PNR data collected may only be processed for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime.
Under the new directive, air carriers will be obliged to provide member states` authorities with the PNR data for flights entering or departing from the EU. It will also allow, but not oblige, member states to collect PNR data concerning selected intra-EU flights. Each member state will be required to set up a so-called Passenger Information Unit, which will receive the PNR data from the air carriers.
Moreover, the Council approved the compromise text agreed with the European Parliament on a draft regulation on the European Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and Training (Europol), which paves the way for the formal adoption of the regulation by the co-legislators in the coming months.
The new draft regulation is mainly aimed at aligning the current Council Decision on Europol with the requirements of the Treaty of Lisbon by setting up the legislative framework of Europol in the regulation and by introducing a mechanism for control of Europol`s activities by the European Parliament, together with national Parliaments. In addition it will adapt Europol`s external relations to the new Treaty rules.
The new regulation will also ensure a robust data protection regime for Europol, in particular to guarantee that the data protection supervisor of Europol has full independence, can act effectively and has sufficient powers of intervention.
Finally, it will provide Europol with a flexible and modern data management regime and align Europol`s governance with the general guidelines applicable to agencies.