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« Last post by Mark Hanson on July 27, 2010, 08:59:42 PM »
European Investigation Order
European police will be able to demand Britons are put under surveillance and gain access to their DNA after the UK opted in to controversial plans to strengthen co-operation.
Home Secretary Theresa May said the European Investigation Order (EIO) will "allow us to fight crime and deliver justice more effectively".
But campaigners said it would give European police "free rein" to spy on Britons and could lead to disproportionate requests, with demands for the DNA of British tourists if there was a serious crime in a resort they had visited.
Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May insisted the measures would help to tackle cross-border crime. "It does not amount to a loss of sovereignty," she said. "It will not unduly burden the police. It does not incur a loss of civil liberties. It is in the national interest to sign up to it."
She acknowledged the existing draft EIO was "not perfect" but by opting in at this stage "we have the opportunity to influence its precise outcome".
The decision was welcomed by shadow home secretary Alan Johnson, but he warned Mrs May she may face stiffer opposition from her own backbenchers.
The power would allow prosecutors from any European Union country to place people under surveillance, bug telephone conversations and monitor bank accounts.
Jago Russell, chief executive of campaign group Fair Trials International (FTI), said: "Police time could be wasted with dealing with unreasonable demands for evidence and the cost to our privacy could be enormous. The UK Government has rightly said it will support new EU justice laws that make us safer and respect our civil liberties. The problem is, these proposals do neither."
An FTI report found the proposals would make it possible for Spanish police investigating a murder in a nightclub to demand the ID of every British citizen who flew to the country in the month the attack took place. It could also demand that UK police search the DNA database to see if any of those identified are on it, and to provide the DNA records of any such person to the Spanish authorities.
Tory MP Dominic Raab said opting in to the EIO on the basis that the UK can renegotiate it later was a naive policy of "hit and hope". The MP for Esher and Walton said: "Far from a tidying up exercise, this directive hands the EU strong powers over UK policing. It will put immense operational strain on British police forces, and undermine safeguards protecting innocent British citizens."
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