12 JULY 2002. - Act enacting the Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Government of the Slovak Republic on Police Cooperation, signed in Brussels on 29 June 2000 (1)

ALBERT II, 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 and the Government of the Slovak Republic on Police Cooperation, signed in Brussels on 29 June 2000, will come out its full and full effect.
Given in Brussels on 12 July 2002.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
L. MICHEL
The Minister of the Interior,
A. DUQUESNE
Minister of Justice,
Mr. VERWILGHEN
Seal of the state seal:
Minister of Justice,
Mr. VERWILGHEN
____
Notes
(1) Session 2000-2001.
Senate.
Documents. - Bill tabled on 24 January 2002, No. 2-1021/1. - Report made on behalf of the commission, No. 2-1021/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of March 27, 2002. - Vote, meeting of 28 March 2002.
Room.
Documents. - Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 50-1725/1. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 50-1725/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of May 23, 2002. - Vote, meeting of 23 May 2002.
(2) This Agreement entered into force on 1^er October 2002.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BELGIUM ROYAL AND GOVERNMENT OF THE SLOVATIC REPUBLIC RELATING TO THE POLICY COOPERATION
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Government of the Slovak Republic referred to as the Contracting Parties,
Based on:
the desire to promote relations of friendship and cooperation between the two States of the Contracting Parties, and in particular on the common desire to strengthen police cooperation among them;
the desire to strengthen this police cooperation within the framework of the international commitments undertaken by the two States in respect of fundamental rights and freedoms, including the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950 and 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;
Recognizing that international organized crime poses a serious threat to the socio-economic development of the States of the Contracting Parties, and that recent developments in international organized crime endanger their institutional functioning;
Considering that the fight against trafficking in human beings and the suppression of illegal entry and exits of the territory of States and illegal migration, as well as the elimination of organized channels participating in these illegal acts, are a concern of the Governments and parliaments of the Contracting States;
Considering the Unique Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 30 March 1961 as amended by the Protocol of 25 March 1972, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 21 February 1971 and the United Nations Convention of 20 December 1988 on the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances;
Considering that the only harmonization of relevant legislation is not sufficient to combat the phenomenon of clandestine migration with sufficient efficiency;
Considering that the need for effective international police cooperation in the field of organized crime and illegal migration is essential to combat and prevent such illegal activities;
The following agreed:
Article 1^er
Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement:
1. International trafficking in human beings, any following intentional behaviour:
(a) Facilitate the entry into the territory of any of the Contracting Parties to this Agreement, the 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 no other true and acceptable choices;
(b) exploit in any way an informed person that the person has entered, transited or resided in the territory of one of the Contracting Parties to this Agreement under the conditions specified in letter (a) .
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 personal detention of such material.
3. Technical assistance:
logistical support to police and immigration services.
4. Nuclear and radioactive material crime:
offences as listed in section 7, paragraph 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, the Council of Europe Convention on the Laundering, Screening, and the seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime, signed in Strasbourg on 8 November 1990.
6. Organized crime:
any offence committed by a "criminal organization", defined as a structured association, of more than two persons, established in time, and acting in a concerted manner with a view to committing offences punishable by deprivation of liberty or a measure of deprivation of liberty for a maximum of four years or a more serious penalty, such offences constitute an end in itself or a means to obtain property benefits, and, where applicable,
7. Personal data processing:
1° Personal data means any information concerning an identified or identifiable natural person; is deemed to be identifiable a person who may be identified, directly or indirectly, including by reference to an identification number or to one or more specific elements, specific to his or her physical, physiological, psychic, economic, cultural or social identity.
2° By processing personal data, it is necessary to hear any operation or set of operations carried out or not using automated processes, and applied to personal data, such as the collection, recording, organization, preservation, adaptation or modification, extraction, consultation, use, communication by transmission, diffusion or any other form of disposal, removal or interconnection,
8. Narcotic:
any substance, whether natural or synthetic, contained in Table I or Table II of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, made in New York on 30 March 1961.
9. Psychotropic substance:
any substance, whether natural or synthetic, or any natural product of Table I, II, III or IV of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances signed in Vienna on 21 February 1971.
10. Precursor:
any chemical necessary for the manufacture of certain narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
11. Illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and precursors:
the cultivation, manufacture or trafficking of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and precursors contrary to the purposes of the Unique Convention of 30 March 1961 on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the Protocol of 25 March 1972, the Convention of 21 February 1971 on Psychotropic Substances or the United Nations Convention of 20 December 1988 on the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
12. Urgent request:
an application is deemed to be a urgent in cases where the passage through formal administrative procedure to the central authorities may interfere or jeopardize preventive or research action.
Article 2
Areas of cooperation
1. Each Contracting Party undertakes to grant to the other Contracting Party, in accordance with the rules and conditions set out in this Agreement, the broadest cooperation with regard to police cooperation.
2. The Contracting Parties shall cooperate by priority in the prevention, repression and prosecution of serious offences involving organized crime:
(a) offences against the life and health of persons;
(b) Offences related to the illegal production and trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors;
(c) offences related to the production, illicit trade, prescription and administration of hormonal, anti-hormonal, beta-adrenergic or production stimulator effects, exploitation animals, as well as offences related to the trade in the exploitation animals and meat of those operating animals to which these substances are administered and finally offences related to the treatment of such meat;
(d) Illegal immigration;
(e) child prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation;
(f) extortion of funds;
(g) theft, illicit trafficking and illegal trade in weapons, ammunition, explosives, radioactive substances, nuclear materials and other dangerous substances;
(h) falsifications of means of payment, cheques and securities;
(i) falsification and use of any falsified official document, such as identity card, passport, visa, residence permit;
(j) Crime affecting economic, financial and banking systems;
(k) offences against property, including theft, illegal trade in works of art, historical objects;
(l) theft, illegal trade and traffic of motor vehicles and the falsification and use of falsified vehicle documents;
(m) laundering of proceeds of crime;
(n) corruption of foreign public officials in international trade transactions.
3. The priorities for the offences provided for in the preceding paragraph may be amended by arrangements between the competent Ministers of the Contracting Parties, in accordance with the national law of each Contracting Party.
Article 3
Collaboration between Contracting Parties will also include:
(a) the search for missing persons and assistance in identifying unidentified persons and corpses;
(b) the search for stolen, disappeared, diverted or misplaced objects.
Article 4
Method of cooperation
The Contracting Parties shall cooperate in the areas specified in Articles 2 and 3 above by the following modalities:
(a) exchange of information on areas within the jurisdiction of police and immigration services;
(b) exchange of equipment;
(c) technical and scientific assistance, expertise and supplies of specialized technical equipment;
(d) an exchange of experiences;
(e) Cooperation in vocational training;
(f) assistance in the preparation of requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters;
(g) reciprocal information on the legal regulation of this Agreement;
in accordance with the following provisions.
Article 5
The exchange of information
The Contracting Parties will provide assistance and close and ongoing cooperation. They will, inter alia, exchange all relevant and important information.
This cooperation can be achieved through the central bodies or in the form of a permanent contact through liaison officers to be designated.
Article 6
1. The Contracting Parties undertake to ensure that their police services, in accordance with national law and within the limits of their competence, provide assistance for the prevention and search for punishable acts, provided that the national law of the requested Contracting Party does not reserve the request or its execution to the judicial authorities.
2. Each Contracting Party may, on its own initiative and in accordance with its national law, 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 or for the prevention of threats to public order and security.
Article 7
Any information provided by the Contracting Party required under the provisions of Articles 5 and 6 shall 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 principles and standards of international law.
Article 8
1. Requests for assistance and responses to these requests must be exchanged between the central bodies responsible, by each Contracting Party, for international police cooperation and immigration.
2. Where the request cannot be made in a timely manner by the above-mentioned channel, it may, exceptionally and in an emergency only, be addressed by the competent authorities of the requesting Contracting Party directly to the competent authorities of the required Contracting Party and may respond directly to it. In these exceptional cases, the requesting authority must notify, as soon as possible, the central body responsible, in the required Contracting Party, for international cooperation, its direct request and to motivate its urgency.
3. The designation of the central bodies responsible for international police cooperation and immigration as well as the modalities of mutual assistance are regulated by protocols concluded between the competent bodies designated by the Contracting Parties.
4. Following the entry into force of this Agreement, the Contracting Parties shall, as soon as possible, communicate, through diplomatic channels, the competent bodies referred to in item 1, indicating their contact addresses and telephone and fax numbers.
Article 9
The competent authority of the requesting Contracting Party shall guarantee the degree of confidentiality that the competent authority of the requested Contracting Party has assigned to the information. Security levels are those used by INTERPOL.
Article 10
1. 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:
(a) in the form of an exchange of information for the purposes of both preventive and repressive fight against crime;
(b) in the execution of requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters;
(c) for the purpose of carrying out the missions of the authorities responsible for the monitoring of external or state borders and immigration;
(d) for the purpose of carrying out the missions of the authorities 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 central body responsible for police cooperation and immigration of the Contracting Party to which they are detached.
4. The competent Ministers of 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.
Article 11
Protection of personal data
1. Pursuant to this Agreement, the processing of personal data is subject to the respective national legislation of each Contracting Party.
2. With regard to the processing 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.
3. With regard to the processing of personal data transmitted under this Agreement, the following provisions apply as follows:
(a) data may only be used by the recipient Contracting Party for the purposes for which this Agreement provides for the processing of such data and under the conditions determined by the Contracting Party providing them;
(b) data may be used only by judicial and police authorities and services that perform a task or perform a function for the purposes referred to in this Agreement and in particular articles 2 and 3. Contracting Parties will provide the list of users;
(c) the Contracting Party that transmits the data shall ensure its accuracy and completeness. It is also required to ensure that these data are not retained longer than necessary. If it finds either on its own initiative or on the basis of a request from the data subject, that incorrect data or that should not have been transmitted have been provided, the recipient Contracting Party shall be informed without delay; the data must be corrected or destroyed;
(d) a Contracting Party may not invoke the fact that another Contracting Party has transmitted incorrect data to discharge its responsibility under its national law with respect to an injured person. If the recipient Contracting Party is required to be repaired due to the use of incorrect data transmitted, the Contracting Party that has forwarded the data shall pay in full the amounts paid in compensation by the recipient Contracting Party;
(e) the transmission and receipt of personal data shall be recorded. Contracting Parties shall communicate the list of authorities or services authorized to consult the registration;
(f) access to data is governed by the national law of the Contracting Party to which the data subject submits its application. The Contracting Party that is not at the origin of the data may only provide such data after the written prior consent of the Contracting Party that originates the data;
(g) data can only be transmitted to police and immigration authorities and services; the communication of data to other bodies that pursue the same objectives as those services and authorities and that act in that same framework may only be carried out after the written prior authorization of the Contracting Party providing them;
(h) upon request, the recipient Contracting Party shall inform the Contracting Party which shall transmit the data of the use made and the results obtained on the basis of the data transmitted.
4. 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. These supervisory authorities may agree to cooperate in the missions recognized by this Agreement.
Article 12
If personal data is transmitted through a liaison officer referred to in Article 10, the provisions of this Agreement shall also apply.
Article 13
Refusal of assistance
1. Each Contracting Party shall refuse assistance in the event of political or military offences or in cases where such assistance is contrary to the legal provisions in force in its territory.
2. Each of the Contracting Parties may refuse assistance or subject it to conditions in respect of offences related to political or military offences or where the fulfilment of assistance may threaten the sovereignty, security, public order or other essential interests of the State.
Article 14
Other forms of cooperation
1. The Contracting Parties agree to provide mutual assistance in the field of vocational training and technical assistance for problems related to the operation of the police.
2. The Contracting Parties agree to exchange their practical experiences in all areas covered by this Agreement.
3. The modalities of mutual assistance shall be settled by arrangements between the competent ministers of the Contracting Parties.
Article 15
Concertation
1. Relevant Ministers of Contracting Parties may establish permanent or occasional working groups to address common issues relating to the suppression and prevention of the areas of crime referred to in Article 2 and the areas of cooperation referred to in Article 3, and to develop, where appropriate, proposals to improve, where appropriate, the practical and technical aspects of cooperation between Contracting Parties.
2. The costs associated with the implementation of cooperation shall be borne by each Party, unless otherwise provided by the representatives of the Contracting Parties.
3. The competent Ministers of Contracting Parties shall establish an assessment group that shall report to the Ministers every three years.
Article 16
Settlement of disputes
1. Any dispute arising from the interpretation or application of this Agreement shall be resolved by a joint consultative commission.
2. It is created a joint consultative commission composed, for the Belgian part, of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Justice and, for the Slovak part, of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the Interior and the General Procurator, which will meet at the request of one or the other Contracting Party, in order to facilitate the resolution of the problems that will arise from the interpretation or of the Agreement.
Article 17
Final provisions
1. The provisions of this Agreement shall apply only to the extent that they are consistent with national law.
2. Monitoring of the implementation of this Agreement shall be carried out in accordance with the national law of each Contracting Party.
Article 18
1. The Contracting Parties shall, in writing and through diplomatic channels, notify each other of the fulfilment of the constitutional formalities required for the entry into force of this Agreement.
2. This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date of receipt of the last notification.
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 shall take effect six months after the date of its surrender to the other Contracting Party.
Article 19
Any Contracting Party may send to the other Contracting Party any proposals, changes or additions to this Agreement. The Contracting Parties agree to the amendments to this Agreement.
In faith, the undersigned, duly authorized to do so, filed their signatures at the bottom of this Agreement.
Done in Brussels on 29 June 2000 in two original copies, in each language, Slovak, French and Dutch, the three texts being equally authentic.
For the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium:
The Minister of the Interior,
A. DUQUESNE
Minister of Justice,
Mr. VERWILGHEN
For the Government of the Slovak Republic:
I. BUDIAK