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Europe debates data sharing

Kablenet.com

Published: 13 Jul 2005 15:50 BST

European justice and home affairs ministers are discussing plans for a cross border computerised intelligence sharing network at a special summit on Wednesday.

The ministerial meeting, organised by the UK which now holds the EU presidency, will discuss home secretary Charles Clarke's ten point action plan in response to the terror attacks on London. As well as moves to set up the intelligence network, Clarke is looking to introduce new measures for the retention of communications data across Europe.

European justice commissioner Franco Frattini has said that EU members should make greater efforts to share data. The Commission wants a "single point of contact" for intelligence sharing across the EU, Frattini said.

"Today it all works with bilateral ties, and if there are good relations this can work. But even then each state has not one but several contacts: secret services, one or more police forces, investigative authorities," Frattini told the Associated Press. "We hope that in the future there will be a single point of contact for each country."

Plans for tracing explosives are also on the ministerial agenda, with proposals to create a European databank to track sales and thefts.

The EU will also have to improve information exchange, particularly in collecting evidence against terror suspects and uncovering the financial networks used by militant groups, Frattini said.