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26 FEBRUARY 2014. - Act enacting the Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, concerning the establishment and operation of a common centre of police and customs cooperation in the common border area, done in Luxembourg on 24 October 2008 (1) (2) (3)

PHILIPPE, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. The Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, concerning the establishment and operation of a common centre of police and customs cooperation in the common border area, which was held in Luxembourg on 24 October 2008, will be fully implemented.
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 26 February 2014.
PHILIPPE
By the King:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs,
D. REYNDERS
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior,
Ms. J. MILQUET
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. A. TURTELBOOM
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. A. TURTELBOOM
____
Note
(1)Sénat (www.senate.be)
Documents. - 5-2250
Annales of the Senate. - 7 November 2013.
House of Representatives (www.lachambre.be):
Documents. - 53-3119
Full report. - 19 December 2013.
(2) Entry into force:
(3) Related States

Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, concerning the establishment and operation of a common centre of police and customs cooperation in the common border zone.
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium,
The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany,
The Government of the French Republic
and
The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,
hereinafter referred to as the Contracting Parties,
Considering the objectives set by the Treaty on the European Union (amended by the Treaty of Nice of 26 February 2001), in particular articles 29 and 30;
Considering the Schengen Agreement Implementation Convention signed on 19 June 1990 and its implementing texts, referred to as CAAS, as well as the Schengen acquis, which is based on them and which has been integrated into the European Union;
Considering the Convention, established on the basis of Article K3 of the Treaty on the European Union, on mutual assistance and cooperation between Customs administrations, signed in Brussels on 18 December 1997, referred to as "the Naples II Convention";
Considering the bi- and multilateral cross-border cooperation agreements signed between the Contracting Parties;
Encouraged by the intention to strengthen cooperation in their border areas in recent years between the police and customs offices;
Desiring to improve their cooperation to ensure greater common security in their border areas;
Acknowledging the need to address cross-border crime and illegal immigration, to ensure public safety and order through the prevention of threats and cross-border disturbances and determined to carry out an effective fight against crime in the areas of human trafficking, drugs, illegal immigration channels and property abuse;
The following provisions were agreed:
PART 1^er General provisions
Article 1^er
Establishment of a common centre for police and customs cooperation
1. The contracting parties shall, in accordance with their respective sovereignty and the responsibilities of the territorially competent administrative and judicial authorities, conduct cross-border cooperation between the police and customs offices through the establishment of a common centre of police and customs cooperation in the common border area - referred to as the "common centre" - to facilitate the coordination of missions on both sides of the border and the exchange of information.
2. Cooperation between Contracting Parties shall be carried out within and within their national competence, in accordance with existing international conventions, community law and national legislation.
3. Cross-border cooperation in the field of police and customs is carried out, inter alia, in accordance with the provisions of the CAAS and the Naples II Convention relating to police and customs cooperation and powers vested in the national central bodies.
4. The provisions of this Agreement shall apply only to the extent that they are consistent with European Union law. If the European Union establishes in the future regulations relating to the scope of this Agreement, the European Union law shall prevail over the relevant provisions of this Agreement as to their application. Contracting Parties may amend or replace the provisions of this Agreement in accordance with the new provisions in this matter in European Union law.
5. This Agreement shall not prejudice the existing or future bi- or multilateral agreements on cooperation in criminal matters, including on international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, concluded between the Contracting Parties.
The common centre established by this Agreement is without prejudice to those established by the agreements signed between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on 9 October 1997 and between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium on 5 March 2001, as well as the relevant provisions of the Agreement signed between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 15 October 2001.
PART II
Functioning of the common centre
Article 2
Area of action and competent services
1. The common centre shall be operated in Luxembourg to accommodate the staff of the competent authorities specified in paragraph 3 of this article.
2. The common border area includes:
- the Kingdom of Belgium:
the judicial districts of Dinant, Arlon, Neufchâteau, Marche and Eupen,
- Federal Republic of Germany:
(a) in Rhineland-Palatinate,
the districts of the police presidencies of Rheinpfalz, Westfalz and Trier,
(b) in Saar,
the entire territory,
- the French Republic, the following border departments:
the Moselle, the Meurthe-et-Moselle, the Ardennes and the Meuse,
- the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:
the entire territory.
Contracting Parties may agree on amendments to the common border area within the meaning of Phase 1 in the form of a protocol to amend this Agreement.
3. Participate in the common centre:
on the Belgian side:
- Federal police,
- local police,
- customs administration and accesses,
on the German side:
- the police of the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Sarre,
- Federal police,
- Customs administration,
- if necessary, the Federal Criminal Police Office,
on the French side:
- National police,
- National gendarmerie,
- customs administration and indirect duties,
on the Luxembourg side:
- Grand Duke Police,
- Customs administration and access.
The authorities of the Contracting Parties shall instruct each other in writing of the allocation of respective national competences in respect of cross-border cooperation and any changes in the designation of the authorities.
4. The common centre is not an independent administration. Agents working in the common centre act as members of the authority that has detached them (the sending authority) and on instructions from the common centre. Staff members of the common centre cannot independently perform operational interventions.
Article 3
Missions and competencies
1. To facilitate the coordination of missions in the common border area and the exchange of information, the authorities represented in the common centre cooperate directly in the areas of the threat to public safety and order, the preventive and repressive fight against cross-border crime, either on a bilateral basis or on a multilateral basis when this crime affects the interests of more than two Contracting Parties.
2. Subject to the jurisdiction of the national central bodies, the common centre shall, for the exchange of information related to the border area, be available to all units and services responsible for the police and customs missions of the national territory of each Contracting Party. This also applies to cases that do not relate to the border area as international agreements, community law, or national provisions permit. The national central bodies of the Contracting Parties are associated with these exchanges of information in accordance with their respective national provisions.
To this end, service officers represented in the common centre collect, analyze and exchange any information necessary for cooperation in police and customs matters, including the common periodic assessment of the border situation.
3. In the border area, the common centre carries out, inter alia:
- assist and facilitate the preparation and coordination of ad hoc action measures where the responsibilities of several authorities are concerned or that a high degree of coordination is necessary,
- support activities for the administrative execution of cross-border compliance and prosecution actions, referred to in articles 40 and 41 of CAAS or articles 20 and 21 of the Naples II Convention, carried out in accordance with the provisions of this Convention and its implementing legislation,
- facilitate preparation and assistance with respect to the delivery of irregular aliens on the basis of the agreements in force following the provisions of the Regulations (EC) n^bones 343/2003 and 1560/2003.
4. The missions and powers of the police, customs and central services, as regulated by the law of each Contracting Party at the national level, are not affected by the provisions of this Article and are exercised, therefore within and within the limits of their national competence, on the basis of existing international conventions, community law and national legislation.
Article 4
Implementation of a common file,
data protection control,
rights of persons concerned
1. It is created within the common centre a personal data file whose purpose is the collection and presentation of requests in the missions referred to in Article 3.
2. The registration of personal data in the file is carried out by the only authorized agents of the Contracting Parties serving in the common centre. Each agent employed in the common centre may complete the data previously recorded in the file by another authority. In the event of a discrepancy between the data, the authorities concerned agree.
The authority that records the data ensures that the data are:
- only data collected and processed in a lawful and fair manner;
- collected for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes and are not subsequently treated in a manner incompatible with the purposes of treatment;
- adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are collected and their subsequent treatments;
- accurate, complete and, if necessary, updated.
3. Only authorized agents of the services represented in the common centre have access to the personal data recorded in the common file for the purposes of the missions provided for in Article 3. They may communicate this data to other competent authorities in this area to the extent that it is necessary to perform their tasks.
4. Personal data stored in the common file must be erased when their integration is incorrect or their knowledge is no longer required to perform the mission. The deletion takes place no later than three years from the date of registration.
Any modification or deletion of the data can only be done by the only authority that has recorded the data.
If the data-recording authority wishes to delete it while it has been completed by other authorities, it must inform them. The update or deletion of the remaining data will then be the responsibility of the following authority having completed the data relating to that person.
If one of the authorities has indexes presuming that a data recorded by another authority is incorrectly entered, it shall promptly notify the authority that has registered the data and, where appropriate, the services referred to in paragraph 1^er to which the data were communicated, for verification purposes and, if necessary, for the correction or deletion of the data.
5. Any person justifying his or her identity has the right to question, within the framework of the provisions of national law, a competent authority in the field of data protection with a view to ascertaining whether personal data concerning him or her are processed and used in the common file and, where appropriate, to obtain such information.
6. The monitoring of data protection for the common file referred to in paragraph 1 is carried out, in close coordination, by the competent authorities in the field of data protection under their respective national law. Random checks shall be carried out regularly at the initiative of the competent authorities or authorized agents referred to in paragraph 2, according to the national law of the respective Contracting Party, or at the request of the independent national data protection authority. The control of data protection at the initiative of the competent authorities and the authorized agents provided for in paragraph 2 shall be carried out in accordance with their respective national obligations. If data have also been processed or used by a Contracting Party, the control shall be carried out in close coordination with the competent authority for the control of data protection of that Contracting Party.
7. However, article 102, paragraph 4, sentence 1, article 109, paragraph 1^er, sentences 1 and 3, section 110, section 111 and section 116 of CAAS apply mutatis mutandis.
8. With regard to data protection, the national data protection provisions corresponding to at least those resulting from the Council of Europe Convention of 28 January 1981 for the protection of persons with respect to the automated processing of personal data are applicable; the Additional Protocol of 8 November 2001 to this Convention on the Control Authorities and Transboundary Data Flows and the Principles of Recommendation R(87) 15 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of 17 September 1987 to regulate the use of personal data in the police sector.
Article 5
Data security
The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is taking specific measures for the common centre:
1. prevent any unauthorized person from accessing facilities used for the processing of personal data (control at facility entrance);
2. prevent data carriers from being read, copied, modified or exported by an unauthorized person (data carrier control);
3. prevent unauthorized entry into the file, as well as any unauthorized knowledge, modification or deletion of integrated personal data (integration control);
4. prevent automated data processing systems from being used by unauthorized persons using data transmission facilities (use control);
5. ensure that authorized persons can only access data within their jurisdiction (limited access control);
6. ensure that it can be verified and found to which authorities personal data can be transmitted by data transmission facilities (transmission control);
7. ensure that it can be verified and found a posteriori what personal data have been introduced and erased in automated data processing systems and how they have been processed, when and by which person (control of introduction and processing);
8. ensure that data entered for different purposes can be treated separately (control of purpose);
9. prevent data from being read, copied, modified or erased in an unauthorized manner (transport control);
10. ensure that personal data are protected from destruction or fortual loss (availability control).
Article 6
Contents of the protocol on the common file
For the file provided for in Article 4, a protocol within the meaning of Article 16 between Contracting Parties shall, in particular:
- the name of the file,
- the object of the file,
- the category of persons whose data will be integrated,
- the nature of personal data to be incorporated,
- the nature of personal data on which the search can be launched in the file,
- the category of person with access to the file,
- the transmission or introduction of personal data to be incorporated,
- the requirements for the communication of personal data integrated in the file, the choice of procedure to be followed in this regard and the categories of recipients,
- control times and storage time,
- journalization.
Article 7
Method of operation and coordination
1. Each Contracting Party shall designate a coordinator representing the different services of the same State present in the common centre. Each coordinator is responsible for the operation of the services he represents and makes, in conjunction with the other coordinators, the decisions necessary for the organization and daily management of the common centre. It exercises functional authority over national officers who are required to follow its instructions. They are also subject to the hierarchical and disciplinary authority of their respective national authorities. Within the premises assigned to their exclusive use within the common centre, officers are empowered to enforce discipline. They may, if necessary, require the assistance of agents from other Contracting Parties.
2. The terms and conditions of operation of the common centre are mutually agreed between the coordinators. A rules of procedure set out the technical details.
3. Officers in the common centre work as a team, cooperate confidently and provide mutual assistance.
4. The headquarters of the common centre is marked by a common official registration.
Article 8
Archived
1. The records of the authorities represented in the common centre are managed and archived separately and in accordance with the rules of the sending authorities corresponding to the computer processing of the data.
2. Each coordinator shall make every effort to ensure that records are archived so that they cannot be examined by unauthorized persons.
Article 9
Equipment
1. The Luxembourg Party makes available free of charge to the premises of the common centre equipped to be put into service. The equipment includes a functional furnishing, computer and telephone facilities in each office.
2. The Luxembourg Party is responsible for the current operating and maintenance costs of the buildings made available.
3. The specific equipment of the sending authorities and the personal equipment of the agents are provided by each Contracting Party.
Article 10
Current expenses
1. Contracting Parties will bear current costs, including for office equipment, copiers, fees and network costs for the common operation of telecommunications, as well as maintenance costs for common computing equipment and telecommunications facilities. The cost breakdown will be regulated in a protocol within the meaning of Article 16.
2. Common expenses for equipment owned by a Contracting Party shall be borne by that Party. Each Contracting Party shall undertake the repair and replacement of the equipment owned by it.
3. The Luxembourg Party shall advance the current costs to be shared annually between all Contracting Parties following the quota established in accordance with paragraph 1^er.
4. If one of the Contracting Parties significantly increases the number of its agents assigned to the common centre, it must first require the advice of other Contracting Parties in order to achieve an adaptation of the protocol within the meaning of paragraph 1^er, sentence 2.
Article 11
Arbitration clauses
1. The coordinators resolve disputes amicably. If it is not possible to reach a consensus, the case is referred to the national sending authorities of which the officers assigned to the common centre are responsible.
2. In cases of particular gravity or extra-frontier character, the services referred to in Article 2, paragraph 3 immediately associate with their action the national authorities.
Article 12
Responsibilities and protection
1. The Luxembourg Party grants the same protection and assistance as to its own agents to the agents of the other Contracting Parties in the common centre.
2. The criminal provisions in force in the Luxembourg Party for the protection of civil servants in the performance of their duties are also applicable to offences committed against agents of other Contracting Parties serving in the common centre.
3. With respect to liability, in the event of damage caused by agents in the course of their mission, the relevant provisions of section 43 of the CAAS are applied.
4. Agents of other Contracting Parties assigned to the common centre may travel to the territory of the Luxembourg Party and perform their service by wearing their national uniform or an apparent distinguishing sign, as well as their individual service weapons and any other means of restraint authorized for the sole purpose of ensuring, where appropriate, self-defence.
PART III
Implementing provisions and final provisions
Article 13
Provisions of application or refusal
Each Contracting Party may refuse, in whole or in part, its cooperation or subject it to certain conditions when it considers that the application or enforcement of a cooperative action is likely to jeopardize the sovereignty, security and public order, the rules of organization or operation of the judicial authority or other essential interests of the State or violate its national law.
Article 14
Abrogatory provisions
As soon as this Agreement comes into force, it ceases to be in force:
Articles 3 to 7 of the Agreement of 15 October 2001 between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on cooperation in their border areas between the police authorities and the customs authorities.
Article 15
Evaluation groups
A joint working group composed of representatives of Contracting Parties shall verify at the request of one of the Contracting Parties the implementation of this Agreement and identify any necessary supplements or updates.
Article 16
Protocols
For the purposes of this Agreement, the competent ministers of the Contracting Parties may conclude additional protocols.
Article 17
Entry into force
Each Contracting Party shall inform the depositary that the national conditions for the entry into force of this Agreement are met. The depositary confirms this notification and informs the other Contracting Parties to this Agreement.
This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following receipt of the last notification.
Article 18
Denunciation
This Agreement shall be concluded for an unlimited period of time. Each Contracting Party may denounce it by written notification to the depositary.
The denunciation takes effect six months after receipt of the notification written by the depositary. The denunciation is only valid for the Contracting Party which is at the origin of the denunciation. This Agreement shall remain valid for other Contracting Parties.
This Agreement shall cease to be in force when three Contracting Parties have denounced it.
Article 19
Depositary
The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is designated as depositary of this Agreement. It shall inform the other Contracting Parties of the entry into force and any subsequent amendments to the Agreement.
Registration of the Agreement with the United Nations Secretariat provided for in Article 102 (1)^er of the Charter of the United Nations shall be implemented immediately after its entry into force by the depositary. The latter shall inform the other Contracting Parties that the registration took place, mentioning the UN registration number as soon as the latter was validated by the United Nations Secretariat.
Done in Luxembourg on 24 October 2008, in four copies in French, Dutch and German, each version being equally authentic.

List of related States
Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, concerning the establishment and operation of a common centre of police and customs cooperation in the common border zone, done in Luxembourg on 24 October 2008