Instrument and problem for coordination: the exchange of police information in the EU multi-level system

Information sharing among public administrations is a form of coordination, the organisation of which also creates additional coordination requirements. In the EU multi-level context, cooperation and information sharing among public agencies is more complex than at the domestic level and therefore increases the need for coordination. This paper shows that information sharing among police agencies has some specific characteristics, due to the fact that the information to be shared in this field is mostly secret and sensitive, e.g. with respect to the human rights of the people whose personal data are being shared. For police cooperation in the EU, centralised and network based forms of information exchange have been developed. Both types react in different ways to the fact that the sharing of sensitive information among security agencies depends upon trust. Attempts to establish EU law rules forcing police agencies to trust each other have been revealed as problematic. Adapted from the source document.