European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to immediately share information when citizens of fellow member states are convicted in their courts. Countries will also be obliged to respond to criminal record requests within 10 working days, under the plan approved by EU justice ministers.
"It is a good step forward as at present information on convictions does not circulate properly between member states," the EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told a news conference. EU states which convict nationals from another of the 27 members of the bloc were until now required to provide such information only once a year.
The new plan was drafted at the end of 2005 after the case of Michel Fourniret, a French forest warden who police say confessed to nine murders in France and Belgium.
Fourniret's murder spree highlighted the lack of a common European register of convicted murderers and sex offenders. Fourniret landed a job at a school in Belgium despite a rape conviction in France because his criminal record was unknown there. The justice ministers also agreed on Wednesday a new legislation aimed at making it easier to claim debts of up to 2,000 euros ($2,661) from one EU country to another, via a standard form.
Late payments are a major cause of insolvency for the small and medium-sized companies often cited as vital to the economy of the 27-member bloc. EU states have two years to comply with both new legislations.