European Union justice and interior ministers meeting on June 4 2009 agreed on a deal that EU and Schengen associated countries will share information provided by the United States about the detainees before agreeing to resettle former Guantanamo detainees.
 
The agreement does not allow a state to block another state from accepting a detainee, but does allow for the security concerns of all states to be addressed.
 
EU member states and Schegen associated countries can receive detainees who are "cleared for release" and who the US administration does not wish to prosecute, who cannot return to their home countries of origin, and who want to be transferred to an EU member state or Schengen associated country.
 
The EU agreement applies to 25 states that comprise the border-free Schengen area. EU member states Britain and Ireland are not Schengen countries while Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are Schengen countries but not EU member states.
 
A five-page document adopted at the June 4 meeting reaffirms that the primary responsibility for closing Guantanamo and finding residence for the former detainees rests with the US.
 
The deal recognises "that decisions on the reception of former detainees and the determination of their legal status fall within the sole responsibility and competence of a receiving member state or Schengen associated country"
 
It takes into account that as a rule, third country nationals legally residing within one member state or Schengen associated country have the right to move freely within the territories of the other Member States or Schengen associated countries, under conditions set by the provisions of Schengen acquis.
 
It recognises that as a result of the abolition of controls at internal borders within the Schengen area, a decision to accept a former detainee by one member state would be relevant for other member states and Schengen associated countries "including in regard to internal security",
 
This meant that consultation and thorough information-sharing were important both before and after decisions to receive former detainees are taken, including information on a change of residence of former detainees, "in order to give all member states and Schengen associated countries the opportunity to share relevant information and to take appropriate measures including measures that may temporarily affect freedom of movement if necessary, in accordance with the Schengen acquis and national law."
 
"The decision on the reception of former detainees falls within the competence of a receiving member state or Schengen associated country."
 
A receiving member state or Schengen associated country will have take into account the public order and security concerns of other member states and Schengen associated countries "since it is the member states which are responsible for ensuring security within the EU and the Schengen area".
 
"Questions relating to the protection of personal data contained in information exchanged and the security of the data exchanged are governed by the national laws of the Member States and Schengen associated countries involved and by the EU and Council of Europe legislation and with full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."
 
As soon as a country has been asked by the US to receive people and has indicated its willingness to consider such a reception, the country will have to "request and obtain" from the US all available (confidential and other) intelligence and information concerning that person, relevant in order to allow it to take an informed decision and to share the necessary information with other counties.
 
All member states as well as Schengen associated countries will be informed about the final decisions taken by the countries concerned.
 
"Without prejudice to existing channels for the sharing of information and intelligence, the law enforcement and judicial cooperation information channels or to the specific mandates of existing Working Parties of the Council and of such bodies as Europol, there may also be a need to allow for sharing of information/experiences about the good practices for integrating former detainees into the society, media communication, and possible general security aspects related to the persons accepted including information on a change of residence of former detainees, in accordance with national and European legislation, once they have been admitted to reside in the territory of a member state or Schengen associated country."
 
"This may also cover former Guantanamo detainees who have already been received in the past," the document says.
 
"Nothing in these conclusions should be interpreted as an invitation to those member
states or Schengen associated countries which do not intend to receive former detainees to do so.," the EU ministers agreed.
 
 
 
Human Rights Watch said that, having reached agreement to share information about detainees at Guantanamo seeking to be resettled in Europe, European countries should now jumpstart resettlement negotiations with the US.
 
"The information-sharing agreement removes one of the major hurdles Europe had to resettling Guantanamo detainees," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism program director at Human Rights Watch. "It should pave the way for the transfer of prisoners who have been wrongfully detained without charge for more than seven years."
 
European states have long said that they were willing to help president Barack Obama in his efforts to close the Guantanamo prison by agreeing to accept some of the estimated 50 Guantanamo detainees who have been cleared for release or transfer but cannot return to their home countries due to credible fears of persecution or abuse. However, plans to transfer the detainees from Guantanamo to Europe were hampered by the lack of an EU information-sharing agreement, Human Rights Watch said.
 
The agreement does not allow a state to block another state from accepting a detainee, but does allow for the security concerns of all states to be addressed.
 
Plans to transfer Guantanamo detainees have also been hampered by the unwillingness of the US government to resettle any of the detainees itself - a condition several EU countries have said must be met before they will accept any of the men being held in the US prison.
 
"European countries have agreed to help the United States close down Guantanamo, but have understandably said that they expect the US to do its part," Mariner said.
 
It was widely reported that the United States planned to resettle several of Guantanamo's 17 Uighur detainees, men from a persecuted Muslim minority in western China who were arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the United States in exchange for bounty, Human Rights Watch said.
 
The US cleared most of the Uighurs of the "enemy combatant" designation and made them eligible for release years ago, but acknowledged they could not be returned to China due to credible fears that they would be tortured.
 
However, efforts to bring the Uighurs to the US, where there is an established Uighur community that has offered to provide housing, as well as language and job training, were shelved in May 2009 when members of the US Congress tried to introduce legislation to block Guantanamo detainees from coming to the United States on grounds that they presented a terrorist threat.
 
"Congress should stop playing political football with the fates of the wrongly imprisoned Uighurs," Mariner said. "Their continued detention hinders Guantanamo's closure, which does actual harm to US national security."