2 MAI 2005. - Act enacting the Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on Police Cooperation, signed at Vilnius on November 19, 2003 (1) (2)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The rooms have adopted and We sanction what leaves:
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 and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on Police Cooperation, signed in Vilnius on 19 November 2003, will come out its full and full effect.
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 2 May 2005.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
K. DE GUCHT
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. L. ONKELINX
The Minister of the Interior,
P. DEWAEL
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. L. ONKELINX
____
Notes
(1) Session 2004-2005.
Senate.
Documents. - Bill tabled on 12 January 2005, No. 3-983/1. Report made on behalf of Commission 3-983/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of 17 February 2005. - Vote, meeting of 17 February 2005.
House of Representatives.
Documents. - Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 51-1624/1. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 51-1624/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of 17 March 2005. - Vote, meeting of 17 March 2005.
(2) This Agreement comes into force on 1^er July 2005.

AGREEMENT
ENTER
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BELGIUM ROYAUME
AND
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITUANIA
POLICY COOPERATION
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium
and
The Government of the Republic of Lithuania
the Contracting Parties,
Based on the desire to promote relations of friendship and cooperation between the Contracting Parties, and in particular on the common desire to strengthen police cooperation among them;
Based on the desire to strengthen this police cooperation within the framework of the international commitments undertaken by the Contracting Parties in respect of fundamental rights and freedoms, including the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950, as well as the Council of Europe Convention No. 108 of 28 January 1981 for the protection of persons with regard to the automated processing of personal data;
Considering that international organized crime poses a serious threat to the socio-economic development of the Contracting States, and that recent developments in international organized crime are likely to unduly influence the functioning of their public authorities;
Considering that the need for effective and effective international police cooperation is essential to combat and prevent organized crime as provided for in the UN Convention of 12 December 2000 on transnational organized crime;
Based on the national legislation of each Contracting Party and taking into account the international commitments of the Contracting Parties;
Determined to conclude this Agreement.
Definitions
Article 1^er
For the purposes of this Agreement:
1. International Trafficking in Human Beings
Any intentional behaviour following:
(1) Facilitate entry into the territory of the State party to this Agreement, transit, stay or exit in that territory if it is used, for that purpose, of the constraint, including violence or threats or, if there is recourse to deception, abuse of authority or other forms of pressure in such a way that the person has other acceptable choices only to subject himself to such pressures;
(2) to exploit in any way an informed person that the person has entered, transited or resided in the territory of the State party to this Agreement under the conditions specified in paragraph (1).
2. Sexual exploitation of children
The offences referred to in Article 34 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989, including the production, sale, distribution or other forms of trafficking in pornographic material involving children and the detention for personal purposes of such material.
3. Technical assistance
Technical assistance includes logistical support to the relevant services of the Contracting Parties.
4. Nuclear and radioactive material crime
Offences as listed in Article 7, § 1^erthe Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, signed at Vienna and New York on 3 March 1980.
5. Money laundering
Offences as listed in Article 6, paragraphs 1^er to 3, of the Council of Europe Convention relating to the laundering, detection, seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime, signed in Strasbourg on 8 November 1990, subject to the reservation contained in the instrument of ratification of the Republic of Lithuania.
6. Organized crime
Any offence under transnational organized crime as provided for in the United Nations Convention on 12 December 2000 concerning transnational organized crime.
7. Personal data
Any information concerning an identified or identifiable natural person.
8. Identification
A person who may be identified, directly or indirectly, including by reference to an identification number or a specific element or elements, specific to his or her physical, physiological, psychological, economic, cultural or social identity.
9. Processing of personal data
Any operation or set of operations carried out or not using automated processes, and applied to personal data, such as collection, registration, organization, conservation, adaptation or modification, extraction, consultation, use, transmission, diffusion or any other form of provision, reconciliation or interconnection, as well as locking, deletion.
10. Narcotics
Any substance, whether natural or synthetic, contained in Table I or Table II of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, made in New York on 30 March 1961. Any subsequent Convention that will amend and/or expand the list of narcotic drugs will be implemented.
11. Psychotropic substance
Any substance, whether natural or synthetic, or any natural product of Table I, II, III or IV of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 21 February 1971. Any subsequent Convention that will amend and/or expand the list of narcotic drugs will be implemented.
12. Illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances
The term "illegal trafficking" refers to the cultivation, manufacture or trafficking of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances contrary to the purposes of the United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 30 March 1961, the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 21 February 1971 or the United Nations Convention on Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 19 December 1988.
13. Urgent request
An application shall be deemed to be an agent in cases where the passage through formal administrative procedure to the competent central bodies of the Contracting Parties may interfere with or compromise preventive or research action.
14. Relevant Central Organs of Contracting Parties are:
For the Republic of Lithuania - the Police Department at the Ministry of the Interior;
For the Kingdom of Belgium - the Office of the Commissioner General Directorate Policy International Police Cooperation (CGI) and General Directorate of Operational Support (DGS).
15. Relevant Ministers of Contracting Parties shall:
For the Republic of Lithuania, the Minister of the Interior;
For the Kingdom of Belgium, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice.
16. The competent central bodies of the Contracting Parties shall notify each other the competent authorities within the framework of this Agreement.
Areas of cooperation
Article 2
1. Each Contracting Party undertakes to grant to the other Party, in accordance with their national legislation and under the conditions established by this Agreement, the broadest cooperation with regard to police cooperation.
2. The Contracting Parties shall cooperate in the prevention, repression and prosecution of serious crimes of organized crime (hereafter serious offences), in particular:
(1) offences against the life, liberty, health and physical integrity of persons;
(2) Offences related to the production and illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors;
(3) clandestine migration;
(4) procuring, trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children;
(5) extortion of funds;
(6) theft, trafficking and illegal trade of arms, ammunition, explosives, radioactive substances, nuclear materials and other dangerous substances;
7) falsifications (fabrication, counterfeiting, processing and distribution) of means of payment, cheques and securities;
(8) Crime in the field of economic and financial trade;
9) offences against property, including theft, trafficking in works of art and historical objects;
10) theft, illegal trade and traffic of motor vehicles and the falsification and use of falsified vehicle documents;
11) money laundering.
3. Serious offences that are not defined in Article 1^er are appreciated by the relevant central bodies of the Contracting Parties in accordance with their national legislation.
Article 3
Collaboration between Parties will also include:
1) searching for missing persons, and helping to identify unidentified bodies;
(2) the search on the territory of the State of a Contracting Party of stolen, disappeared, diverted or misplaced objects in the territory of the State of the other Contracting Party.
Article 4
The parties shall cooperate in the areas specified in Articles 2 and 3 above by:
(1) exchange of information between the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties;
(2) exchange of equipment according to possibilities;
3) technical and scientific assistance, expertise and supplies of specialized technical equipment;
(4) the exchange of experiences in the areas specified in Articles 2 and 3 of this Agreement;
(5) Cooperation in the field of professional and continuing staff training;
(6) Assistance in the preparation of the execution of mutual legal assistance of the competent authorities.
Mutual assistance
Article 5
1. In order to fulfil the commitments resulting from this Agreement, the Contracting Parties will provide assistance and close and ongoing cooperation. They will, inter alia, exchange all relevant and important information.
2. The competent central bodies of the Contracting Parties referred to in Article 1 of this Agreement shall provide the information, as well as mutual assistance in accordance with requests for assistance in writing. This cooperation may take the form of permanent contact through liaison officers to be designated.
3. The request for assistance must contain all the detailed information required for the execution of the request for assistance and must be accompanied by duly certified copies of the documents that may assist in the execution of the request.
4. Where the request cannot be made in a timely manner by the means referred to in paragraph 3 of this article, it may, exceptionally and in an emergency only, be addressed by the competent authority of the requesting Contracting Party directly to the competent authority of the requested Party and the requested Party may respond directly to it. The competent requesting authority shall notify, as soon as possible, the competent central authority, in the required Contracting Party, of its application and to motivate its urgency.
5. The application must be completed as soon as possible. Competent central bodies of Contracting Parties may, where appropriate, request additional information to facilitate the application.
6. When the competent authority of the Contracting Party is not likely to grant assistance, it shall forward the request to another competent authority of the Contracting Party that is likely to do so.
7. In particular cases, each Contracting Party may, in accordance with its national law and without being invited to do so, communicate to the Contracting Party concerned information that may be important to the Contracting Party concerned for the purpose of assisting in the prevention and suppression of offences as referred to in Article 2 of this Agreement or for the prevention of threats to public order and security.
8. The Contracting Parties shall undertake to ensure that assistance is granted, in accordance with national law and within the competence of the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties, for the purpose of preventing and seeking punishable acts, provided that the national law of the Contracting Party does not reserve the request or its execution to the judicial authorities or other public authorities.
Article 6
Any information provided by the requested Contracting Party may not be used by the requesting Contracting Party for the purpose of providing evidence of the facts incriminated only after a request for mutual legal assistance in accordance with the international provisions applicable in the two Contracting Parties.
Article 7
The requesting competent authority shall guarantee the degree of confidentiality that the required competent authority of the other Party has assigned to the information. The safety levels are those used by EUROPOL.
Detachment of liaison officers
Article 8
1. In order to promote and accelerate their cooperation, as well as to properly implement this Agreement, Contracting Parties may detach, for a specified or indeterminate duration, liaison officers from a Contracting Party to the other Contracting Party.
2. The purpose of the detachment of liaison officers for a specified or indeterminate period is to promote and accelerate cooperation between Contracting Parties, including by agreeing to:
1) in the form of information exchange for the purposes of both preventive and repressive fight against crime;
(2) in the execution of requests for mutual assistance in criminal matters;
3) for the purpose of carrying out the missions of the authorities responsible for the monitoring of external borders and immigration;
(4) for the purpose of carrying out the missions of the authorities of the Contracting Parties responsible for the prevention of threats to public order.
3. Liaison officers have an advisory and assistance mission. They are not competent for the autonomous execution of police measures. They provide information and carry out their missions in accordance with the instructions given to them by the Contracting Party of origin and by the Contracting Party to which they are detached. They regularly report to the competent central body of the Contracting Party to which they are detached.
4. Contracting Parties may agree that liaison officers of a Contracting Party seconded to third States shall also represent the interests of the other Contracting Party.
Protection of personal data
Article 9
1. With regard to the processing and transmission of personal data pursuant to this Agreement, Contracting Parties undertake to achieve a level of protection of personal data that complies with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention of 28 January 1981 for the protection of persons with respect to the automated processing of personal data and Recommendation R (87) 15 of 17 September 1987 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to regulate the use of personal data.
2. Pursuant to this Agreement, the processing of personal data is subject to the respective national law of each Contracting Party and to the following rules:
(1) personal data may only be used by the Contracting Party to whom it is intended for the sole purpose specified by the Contracting Party to provide such data and in accordance with the conditions imposed by that Contracting Party and only for the purposes for which this Agreement provides for the transmission of such data. The use of data for other purposes is only possible after the prior authorization of the Contracting Party which transmits the data and in accordance with the legislation of the Contracting Party to which it is intended;
(2) Personal data may be used only by the public authorities of the Contracting Party who perform a task or perform a function for the purposes referred to in this Agreement and in particular Articles 2 and 3. The competent central bodies of the Contracting Parties shall communicate the list of public authorities authorized to use personal data;
(3) the Contracting Party which transmits the data shall ensure that the data is accurate and complete. If it finds either on its own initiative or in response to a request from the data subject, that incorrect data or that should not have been transmitted have been provided, the recipient Contracting Party(s) must be informed without delay; the latter or the latter are required to correct or destroy the data or to mention that the data is incorrect or should not have been transmitted;
(4) The transmission and receipt of personal data shall be recorded. The Contracting Parties shall communicate the list of authorities authorized to consult the registration. The Contracting Party that transmits personal data shall ensure that such data is not retained longer than necessary;
(5) Access to personal data is governed by the national law of the Contracting Party to which the data subject submits its application. The communication of the data to the applicant is only possible after requesting permission from the Contracting Party that is the source of the data;
(6) upon request of the Contracting Party that has transmitted the personal data, the Contracting Party shall receive the information on the use of the data on the personal data transmitted and the results obtained;
(7) a Contracting Party may not invoke the fact that another Contracting Party has transmitted incorrect personal data to discharge its responsibility under its national law with respect to an injured person.
3. Each Contracting Party shall designate a supervisory authority, in accordance with national law, to exercise in its territory independent control of the personal data processing carried out on the basis of this Agreement and to verify whether such treatments are not in violation of the rights of the person concerned. These supervisory authorities are also competent to analyse the difficulties of applying or interpreting this Agreement concerning the processing of personal data. They may agree to cooperate in the missions recognized by this Agreement.
4. If personal data is transmitted through a liaison officer referred to in Article 8, the provisions of this Agreement shall also apply.
Exception
Article 10
1. Each Party may refuse assistance, in whole or in part, or subject it to conditions when it comes to political or military offences, or offences related to political or military offences or where the fulfilment of the assistance could threaten human rights, undermine the sovereignty or security of the State, or be contrary to the national legislation and international commitments of the required Contracting Party.
2. In the event of a refusal of assistance, the competent central authority of the other Contracting Party or the competent authority of the Contracting Party which has directly submitted the request for assistance shall be informed within 30 days of the date of receipt of the request for assistance, explaining the reasons for such refusal.
Concertation
Article 11
1. Relevant Ministers of Contracting Parties may establish permanent or occasional working groups to address common problems with regard to the suppression and prevention of the areas of serious offences referred to in Article 2 and the areas of cooperation referred to in Article 3 of this Agreement and to develop, where appropriate, proposals to improve, where appropriate, the practical and technical aspects of cooperation between Contracting Parties.
2. The competent Ministers of the Contracting Parties shall establish an assessment group that shall report on the implementation of this Agreement to the competent Ministers of the Contracting Parties every three years.
Languages of communication
Article 12
Cooperation under this Agreement is carried out in the English, French and Lithuanian languages.
Fees
Article 13
1. The costs associated with the implementation of this Agreement shall be borne by each Party to the extent of their commitments.
2. Where applicable, the financing of the costs related to the implementation of the actions under this Agreement shall be agreed between the two Contracting Parties on a case-by-case basis.
Settlement of disputes
Article 14
Any dispute arising from the implementation of this Agreement shall be settled by negotiations.
Final provisions
Article 15
1. The provisions of this Agreement shall apply only to the extent that they are consistent with the national law of each Contracting Party.
2. Monitoring of the implementation of this Agreement shall be carried out in accordance with the national law of each Contracting Party.
Article 16
1. The Contracting Parties shall, in writing and through diplomatic channels, notify each other of the fulfilment of the internal legal formalities required for the entry into force of this Agreement.
2. The Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date of receipt of the last notification referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
3. This Agreement shall be concluded for an unlimited period of time. Any Contracting Party may denounce it by means of a diplomatic written notification to the other Contracting Party. The denunciation will take effect 6 months after the date of its consignment.
Article 17
1. Any Party may send to the other Party any proposals to amend this Agreement. The Parties shall agree in writing to the amendments to this Agreement.
2. The amendments shall be in vigur according to the order set out in paragraph 2 of Article 16 of this Agreement.
In faith, the undersigned, duly authorized by their respective Governments, have affixed their signatures to the bottom of this Agreement.
Signed at Vilinius on 19 November 2003, in two original copies, in each of the Lithuanian, French, Dutch and English languages, the four texts being equally authentic. The English text shall be construed in the event of a discrepancy with respect to the interpretation of this Agreement.