Subject matter and scope
1. This Directive establishes harmonised rules for the adequate and rapid exchange of information between the competent law enforcement authorities for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences.
In particular, this Directive establishes rules on:
(a)
requests for information submitted to the Single Points of Contact established or designated by the Member States, in particular on the content of such requests, the provision of information pursuant to such requests, the working languages of the Single Points of Contact, mandatory time limits for providing requested information and the reasons for the refusal of such requests;
(b)
the provision by a Member State, on its own initiative, of relevant information to the Single Points of Contact or to the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States, in particular the situations and the manner in which such information is to be provided;
(c)
the default channel of communication to be used for all exchanges of information under this Directive and the information to be provided to the Single Points of Contact in relation to the exchange of information directly between the competent law enforcement authorities;
(d)
the establishment or designation and the organisation, tasks, composition and capabilities of each Member State’s Single Point of Contact, including on the deployment and operation of a single electronic case management system for carrying out their tasks under this Directive.
2. This Directive shall not apply to exchanges of information between the competent law enforcement authorities for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences that are specifically regulated by other Union legal acts. Without prejudice to their obligations under this Directive or other Union legal acts, Member States may adopt or maintain provisions further facilitating the exchange of information with the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences, including by means of bilateral or multilateral arrangements.
3. This Directive does not impose any obligation on Member States to:
(a)
obtain information by means of coercive measures;
(b)
store information for the sole purpose of providing it to the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States;
(c)
provide information to the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States to be used as evidence in judicial proceedings.
4. This Directive does not establish any right to use the information provided in accordance with this Directive as evidence in judicial proceedings. The Member State providing the information may consent to its use as evidence in judicial proceedings.
Definitions
For the purpose of this Directive:
(1)
‘competent law enforcement authority’ means any police, customs or other authority of the Member States competent under national law to exercise authority and to take coercive measures for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences or any authority that takes part in joint entities set up between two or more Member States for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences, but excludes agencies or units dealing especially with national security issues and liaison officers seconded pursuant to Article 47 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement;
(2)
‘designated law enforcement authority’ means a competent law enforcement authority that is authorised to submit requests for information to the Single Points of Contact of other Member States in accordance with Article 4(1);
(3)
‘serious criminal offence’ means any of the following:
(a)
an offence as referred to in Article 2(2) of Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA ( 28 ) ;
(b)
an offence as referred to in Article 3(1) or (2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/794;
(4)
‘information’ means any content concerning one or more natural or legal persons, facts or circumstances relevant to competent law enforcement authorities for the purpose of carrying out their tasks under national law of preventing, detecting or investigating criminal offences, including criminal intelligence;
(5)
‘information available’ means directly accessible information and indirectly accessible information;
(6)
‘directly accessible information’ means information held in a database that can be directly accessed by the Single Point of Contact or a competent law enforcement authority of the Member State from which information is requested;
(7)
‘indirectly accessible information’ means information that a Single Point of Contact or a competent law enforcement authority of the Member State from which information is requested can obtain from other public authorities or from private parties established in that Member State, where permitted by and in accordance with national law, without coercive measures;
(8)
‘personal data’ means personal data as defined in Article 3, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2016/680.
Principles regarding the exchange of information
Each Member State shall, in connection with all exchanges of information under this Directive, ensure that:
(a)
information available can be provided to the Single Point of Contact or the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States (‘principle of availability’);
(b)
the conditions for requesting information from and providing information to the Single Points of Contact and the competent law enforcement authorities of other Member States are equivalent to those applicable for requesting and providing similar information within that Member State (‘principle of equivalent access’);
(c)
it protects information provided to its Single Point of Contact or competent law enforcement authorities that is marked as confidential in accordance with the requirements set out in its national law offering a similar level of confidentiality as the national law of the Member State that provided the information (‘principle of confidentiality’);
(d)
where the requested information was initially obtained from another Member State or a third country, it only provides such information to another Member State or to Europol with the consent of, and in accordance with the conditions imposed on its use by, the Member State or third country that initially provided the information (‘principle of data ownership’);
(e)
personal data exchanged under this Directive that are found to be inaccurate, incomplete or no longer up to date are erased or rectified or that their processing is restricted, as appropriate, and that any recipient is notified without delay (‘principle of data reliability’).
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
