Britain and Ireland call for EU data sharing

Britain and Ireland have agreed to share more intelligence to counter terrorist plots, such as this summer's car bomb attempts in London.

Prime minister Gordon Brown met his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern on 16 July to discuss, among other things, the threat of terrorism. They agreed to share data taken from biometric visas and said they would urge all 27 EU states to follow suit.

Speaking at a press conference, before a meeting of the British Irish Council, Brown said: "I am delighted that the UK and Irish governments will now approach the EU for better systems of data sharing so that we can deal with potential threats — whether it is criminal conspiracies or terrorist conspiracies — and work together by sharing data with our other European colleagues in a way that we have not done before."

The pact comes a week after Interpol chief Ron Noble criticised Britain for not sharing terrorist information with other countries.

Accusing the government of failing to check immigrants against a database of stolen passports and for not passing on a terrorist watch list to the police agency, Noble told the BBC: "The UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century."

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