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IPCO Annual Report 2018
4.10
We welcomed the Joint Statement: Strengthening Intelligence Oversight Cooperation by
the oversight agencies of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland,
which was published on 14 November 2018.20 In establishing a closer working relationship
between those countries, the statement also addressed the potential of an oversight
gap, in the context of overseeing international data exchange by the intelligence and
security services, and outlined potential ways to tackle this risk. We anticipate that this
more collaborative approach to oversight will help in a number of areas, not least by
developing a collective approach to human rights standards and the safeguards that should
apply to the exchange of personal information between intelligence services and law
enforcement agencies.
4.11
A meeting of a larger group of European oversight bodies was hosted in Paris by
the Presidents of the French Commission Nationale de Contrôles des Techniques de
Renseignement (CNCTR) and the Belgian Comité Permanent de Contrôle des Services de
Renseignement et de Sécurité (CPR) in December 2018. This was an introductory meeting
between many of the European oversight bodies who will be gathering again in The Hague
in December 2019.
20 https://ipco.org.uk/docs/IPCO%20Statement%20re%205%20oversight%20bodies.docx