European Achievement

Revolutionary

The Prüm Treaty was signed, by the Interior and Justice Ministers of the seven core European states,[1] May 27, 2005, but been ratified, for the time being, only by Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Spain. For the participating states, the Treaty provides access to DNA and fingerprint databases as well as vehicle registration data. This access is available for purposes of prosecution or for preventive measures. An exchange of information on "violent offenders" and "terror suspects" - both very elastic terms - is already in progress. The Prüm Treaty also authorizes police operations on foreign territory. The German Interior Ministry calls this a "revolutionary" Treaty because it curtails sovereign rights in the field of security.[2] Internationally it is considered unique and derives from an initiative made by the former Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily (SPD).

EU-wide

Berlin has always sought to extend the "Prüm Treaty" to cover the entire EU. According to the German Ministry of Justice, the contracting partners' goal is "to convince as many European states as possible to join this pro-Europe Treaty". The initial plan was to evaluate the Treaty's effects and "after three years, at the most" to initiate the incorporation of the terms of the Prüm Treaty into the EU legal framework.[3] In great haste, the German Interior Minister has already taken this initiative, even though this treaty has only been enacted in two countries (Germany and Austria), effective for about six weeks. At the recent meeting of the EU's interior and justice ministers, he tabled this plan for discussion. Even though this Treaty is heavily contested not only by several European states, but also in Germany, its EU-wide adoption will be formally examined, under German EU Council Presidency, at the next interior and justice ministers' meeting, scheduled for February 15 and 16 in Brussels.

No Control

Gisela Piltz, the FDP parliamentary group's domestic policy spokeswoman in the German Bundestag, criticises that the Prüm Treaty reduces democratic controls over the security apparatus. Police forces, intervening on foreign territory, are not subordinate to the sovereign representatives of that nation. "Only reference to the EU Council's recommendations from 1987 (!), which are explicitly non-binding" serve as a minimum standard for the data privacy laws, according to a privacy expert.[4] Even if deficiencies should be discovered, there is no way to "prevent the exchange of data from taking place one day after the Treaty's enactment." The intended application throughout the EU has also come under massive protest. It is expected that this international treaty, elaborated and signed by the executive, will, at best, be slipped though national parliaments, without debate, and have supervision renounced by the European Parliament. Great Britain, Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic have, until now, strictly refused to join this treaty.[5]

Quotas

The German government, while praising restrictions on rights of national sovereignty in the field of security, as a "European achievement," continues nevertheless to resist an EU migration policy for Germany. German Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, brusquely rejected Portugal's initiative to introduce the "Green Card" procedure throughout the EU. Schäuble wants to be in charge of restricting immigration to Germany and a limited entry into the EU, only on the basis of quotas of labour contingents from impoverished countries on the demand of businesses.[6] An additional objective of the German EU Council Presidency is the elaboration of the defence against refugees [7] and the further reinforcement of the Frontex Agency, to seal off not only the southern but also the eastern EU borders against unsolicited immigration.

With Machetes

To facilitate the deportation of migrants, Berlin is hoping to conclude, during its EU Council Presidency, so called, partnership treaties, containing clauses regulating the evacuation of refugees, with African third-party countries. According to Berlin, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal are countries being considered as models for such treaties. It is known that Mauritanian security forces have abandoned refugees, deported from the EU, in the desert.[8] Mauritania is not the only West African country known for "exceptional" treatment of refugees. Gambia, which likewise is presided over by a president, brought to power through a putsch, is reported to have taken, last fall, 50 illegal immigrants from various West African countries "as soon as they crossed the border from Senegal into Gambia, they were arrested and were brought to the Marine headquarters in the Gambian capital, Banjul.[9] Tied with cords and electric cable, they were transported by the military to different locations on the outskirts of Banjul, where they were executed, some with machetes." It is with Gambia, of all countries, that Germany intends to conclude its fourth model treaty, including regulations for deportation.

[1] Belgien, Deutschland, Frankreich, Luxemburg, die Niederlande, Österreich und Spanien.
[2] Die Revolution von Prüm; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 16.01.2007
[3] Vereinfachte grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit - Prümer Vertrag; www.bmj.bund.de
[4] Thilo Weichert: Wo liegt Prüm? Der polizeiliche Datenaustausch in der EU bekommt eine neue Dimension; www.datenschutzzentrum.de/polizei/060329-pruem.htm
[5] Germany seeks to modernize policing across EU; International Herald Tribune 15.01.2007
[6] see also Nicht verwertbar and Nicht verwertbar (II)
[7] see also Festung Europa
[8] see also Um jeden Preis and In die Wüste
[9] Präsident bleibt, die Bürger gehen; taz 22.09.2006