Trevi
01 January 1991
Trevi
bacdoc November=1991
Mr Andrew F Bennett asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department (1) what subjects of discussions by the Trevi group
the Minister expects to be resolved during the Italian Presidency
of the European Economic Community; (2) what areas of United
Kingdom law are being looked at with a view to changes to meet
the needs for common European Economic Community action as
identified by the Trevi group; (3) if he will list all the
meetings of the Trevi group, and the subject discussed at each
meeting and decisions arrived at; and if he will indicate the
future areas of work the Trevi group will be addressing.
Mr Waddington, the Home Secretary replied: During each presidency
of Trevi a number of working groups meet to further cooperation
against terrorism, drug trafficking and other serious crimes,
reporting their conclusions to senior officials and Ministers.
I and my colleagues will be reviewing the work done under the
Irish presidency in Dublin next week, and I shall report the
outcome to the House. The declaration made at our last meeting
in Paris on 15 December 1989, a copy of which is in the Library,
sets out a programme of work which is likely to be further
progressed during the Italian presidency. No changes in United
Kingdom law are currently being considered as a result of work
in Trevi, which is concerned with practical police cooperation.
Mr Andrew F Bennett asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department (1) what discussions the Trevi group has had about
passing information from the United Kingdom, held on the central
police computer, relating (a) to criminal records and (b)
suspected crime and suspects, and what protection the group
intends to provide to protect the civil rights of any individual
so identified; (2) what discussions the Trevi group of Ministers
has had about setting up a European Economic Community-wide
database; and what consideration has been given in such
discussions to the laws relating to privacy in such countries.
Mr Peter Lloyd, Minister of State, replied: Trevi Ministers
agreed at their meeting in Paris on 15 December 1989 to initiate
a study of a possible common information system among member
states, designed to combat the most serious forms of crime. The
protection of data and of personal privacy are among the
considerations to be addressed in this study, which is at an
early stage. No decisions have yet been taken on whether to set
up such a system and, if so, on what information it should
contain or how it should work.
Mr Andrew F Bennett asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department what the Trevi group of Ministers has agreed with
regard to political asylum refused by one European Economic
Community state; how applications will be considered in other
European Community states; and what steps are being taken to
harmonise the grounds for granting political asylum.
Mr Waddington, the Home Secretary replied: At their last meeting
in Paris on 15 December 1989, EC Immigration Ministers adopted
a declaration relating, among other subjects, to measures on
asylum. A copy of the declaration is in the Library. The next
meeting is to be held in Dublin on 14 and 15 June and the outcome
will be reported to the House in the usual way.
EC Europe