It's practically the same story as reported a few weeks ago (see blog 08/05 below)Failure of Brexit talks could lead to terrorism intelligence delays, say Lords
Real-time access to EU police databases has not yet been agreed in the negotiations
The UK risks losing its real-time access to a watchlist of suspected terrorists if it does not strike a comprehensive Brexit deal on justice and security, peers have been told....Fears were also raised over the future of the European arrest warrant (EAW) system and the prospect of the UK becoming a haven for foreign criminals...“I hope we will agree that we want to avoid going back to the old system, because it did allow criminal havens; [with] those characters who lived on the Spanish Costa del Sol immune from any formal proceedings....“It rather sounds as though the legalistic approach that’s being taken to SIS II [the database] [in Brexit talks] means that we’re not going to have real-time access to data,” said Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation in the UK between 2011 and 2017....Lord Ricketts, a former diplomat and the chair of the committee, questioned the “coherence” of the UK’s Brexit approach. It was looking for a Canada-style agreement in trade but a specially close arrangement in security and justice
Entirely coincidentally:
an ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the MEP Nathalie Loiseau, warned that a crash out from the EU without a deal would mean weaker ties on security.
The Government's response? An understandably rather weary one:
Brokenshire said he was optimistic the intensified programme of negotiations scheduled for July and August would deliver a result for both sides.The only new bit is this:
He was confident sense would prevail as there would be “a mutual loss of capability” in tackling crime and security if negotiations collapsed.
Deal or no deal, the UK “will continue to be a global leader of security and one of the safest countries in the world” with access to Interpol and bilateral intelligence channels, he said....
Brokenshire rejected...concerns, pointing out that the UK had only joined SIS II in 2015 and Ireland was not a member of SIS II, suggesting it was possible to run counter-terror operations without access to the Schengen databases...“I remain optimistic as to what the negotiations in the coming weeks may bring because of, I think, that sense of shared endeavour,” Brokenshire said, adding that the published approach of the UK supported the “national interest and equally supports those broader interests for the EU security too”.
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