Britain left the European Union on 31 January but UK and EU officials are still negotiating about trade and other matters post-Brexit. One of the issues up for discussion is how much access UK law enforcement agencies will have to EU-wide databases.
British police forces may have difficulty accessing Europol databases because the German government is playing hardball, according to a report in The Guardian.
The Guardian says it has seen a German government document which says Britain is seeking to have same access to the EU's law enforcement agency as the 27 members of the bloc.
The report says Britain wants to “approximate the position of a member state as closely as possible.”
But the Germans say continued access to Europol's central intelligence database (EIS) was “not possible.”
Face-to-face talks between the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Britain's chief negotiator, David Frost, ended when the coronavirus outbreak hit Europe but video conferencing calls have resumed this week.
Although the trade talks are at the top of the agenda, British law enforcement including the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command and MI5, are pressuring the UK government to allow them to continue to access EIS and the Schengen Information System (SIS), a database used by European border control agencies.
In February 2019, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for Brexit, Deputy…
