[A-List] EU sub-imperialism: serving the US

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

EU agrees to pass on intelligence to FBI

Ian Black, Brussels
Friday December 20, 2002
The Guardian

The European Union struck a deal last night allowing the US to obtain
personal data from the Europol law enforcement agency on suspects. The
agreement represents a significant step forward in transatlantic cooperation
in the "war on terrorism".

Diplomats in Brussels said the two sides were also close to an unprecedented
extradition agreement after assurances from Washington reportedly eased EU
concerns about the use of the death penalty. "The way to that is now open,"
one official said last night.

Denmark, which is running the EU's rotating presidency, told other
governments it had overcome worries about data protection and privacy to
finalise an agreement allowing the FBI and other US agencies to secure
information collated by the union's embryonic police organisation.

With the US anxious to deepen counter-terrorism cooperation with sometimes
suspicious European countries, this is a highly significant move. Under the
agreement, being signed in Copenhagen today, the two sides will be able to
set up joint investigation teams and conduct transatlantic interrogations
via videolink.

Simplified procedures will be used to exchange data, such as the phone
records and bank account details of criminal and terrorist suspects as well
as intelligence reports on drugs trafficking, bomb-making and forgery.

Europol, based in the Hague, is run by the 15 EU governments, who second
their own police to it and keep its operations under tight control.

The EU promised to do everything it could to help track down al-Qaida cells
but there have been some difficult moments since it was revealed that
Mohammed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the September 11 attacks, had
lived in Hamburg with two other hijackers .

Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan student, is on trial in Germany for alleged
membership in an al-Qaida cell and involvement in plotting the attacks that
killed 3,000 people.

Civil liberties groups have repeatedly warned that the EU-US agreement could
undermine Europe's high standards of data protection. "The way this measure
is being rushed through has provided no realistic opportunity for ... proper
scrutiny," said Tony Bunyan, of the London-based monitoring group
Statewatch.

"The issues at stake are too important to be left to secret decision-making
removed from democratic accountability," he added.

But Lene Jespersen, the Danish justice minister, insisted after talks
yesterday that Washington had given solid assurances that information will
not be misused.

The US already has bilateral information exchange arrangements with several
EU member states, but the new system should speed up investigations by
enabling American agencies to deal directly with Europol.

Diplomats said the extradition agreement was all but complete though it
would not be finalised until the new year. The breakthrough came when the US
accepted that EU members would not be expected to surrender suspects if they
could face the death penalty.