EU: Removal of records ordered
01 November 1994
In a landmark decision the European Commission has ordered the UK and Belgium governments to remove the names of two brothers, Rhys and Gwilym Boore, from police records (see Statewatch, vol 3 no 2 and vol 4 no 5). The two brothers names were on the football hooliganism index at the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) in London and the files of the Belgium police. The names of the two brothers was first put on the index in 1990 when they were questioned, but not arrested or charged, by the police in Luxembourg while on their way to watch the Welsh football team. A Belgian police liaison officer passed erroneous information to the NCIS in London. Then in 1992 this same information was used to question them again and Rhys Boore, was held strip-searched and deported.
In a letter the European Commission says that under the EC Treaty thee were "special measures concerning the free movement of persons justified on public order grounds, as interpreted by the Court of Justice". It goes on:
The Court has held that a Member State may only rely on the public order exception to the Treaty provisions on the free movement of persons if the person concerned represents a real and sufficiently serious threat affecting a fundamental interest of society (Case 30/77 Bouchereau [1977] ECR 1999). Moreover, it follows from the judgement in Cases 115-6/81 Adoui and Cornuaille [1982] ECR 1665 that, even where a person has been lawfully expelled from a Member State on public order grounds, that State is bound to give active consideration to an application lodged by him after a reasonable time for the review of his case on the basis that he no longer constitutes a threat to public order.
Consequently, Belgium and the United Kingdom are bound to give active consideration to the brothers' request to be removed from any "blacklist" on which they might appear. I have written to both Member States to this effect, asking them to delete your clients' names from any such "blacklist" and, if not, to give reasons for keeping them on such a list.
Philip Leach, Liberty's Legal Officer who took up the case with the Commission, commented: "This could prove a landmark decision. If the government refuses to remove the names of the two men from the list then the European Commission could take it to the European Court of Justice. The decision could help ensure that false information is not held on people and not allowed to be passed around European police forces".
Letter from the European Commission Directorate General XV (Internal Market and Financial Services), 20.10.94.upd