In a press release issued on 5 January, Luc Frieden, Luxembourg minister of justice and current head of justice and home affairs at the European Council, spoke of the fears that thousands of EU citizens may have been lost in the disaster and the subsequent problems of identification. The Hague programme for establishing a European area of freedom, security and justice contains measures for the exchange of data concerning individual citizens held by police and judicial systems throughout Europe.
Such exchanges have been hitherto viewed primarily as part of the fight against terrorism. But, Mr Friedman pointed out, police and judicial authorities from many European countries were now having to use such information to identify and to trace those who had been reported missing in the disaster. If these authorities had greater powers of co-operation and free exchange of information on identity (such as fingerprints held as part of a police records), the likelihood of speedy and correct identification would be greatly increased.
The minister suggested that the Council should consider rapid implementation of these measures on an ad hoc basis to cope with the extreme circumstances of the Asian tsunami disaster. An extraordinary meeting of EU Council ministers will be held on 7 January to discuss the co-ordination of the tsunami relief efforts (see Euractiv 6 January).
The Luxembourg Presidency has already highlighted the exchange of information on criminal records between national police forces as one of its priorities for 2005. Other priorities in the justice and home affairs area are economic migration, border controls, the European evidence warrant and the retention of data by telecoms companies.
