JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS : NGOS ADD THEIR VOICE TO EURODAC CONCERNS.

Further concerns have been raised that plans to give national law enforcement authorities access to the EURODAC database may breach fundamental rights.

The concerns are set out in a memorandum sent from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, ECRE (an NGO representative body), to the Slovenian EU presidency. It states that allowing such access "could violate the principle of equity and non discrimination on the basis of nationality and ethnic origin, the right to the protection of personal data as well as endanger / stigmatise refugees".

The concerns reinforce observations made by the European Parliament in a political resolution adopted on 12 December. This also noted that any proposal to transform EURODAC into "a security measure and criminal investigation tool" would be "unlikely to be legal under EU and international law". The database is an EU tool used to collect biometric data on asylum seekers. The Council of Ministers, in June 2007, approved the idea that...