Deal means EU police are free to spy on UK

Home Secretary Theresa May said the European Investigation Order (EIO) will "allow us to fight crime and deliver justice more effectively".

But campaigners said it would give European police "free rein" to spy on Britons and could lead to disproportionate requests, with demands for the DNA of British tourists if there was a serious crime in a resort they had visited.

Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May insisted the measures would help to tackle cross-border crime.

"It does not amount to a loss of sovereignty," she said.

"It will not unduly burden the police. It does not incur a loss of civil liberties. It is in the national interest to sign up to it."

She acknowledged the existing draft EIO was "not perfect" but by opting in at this stage "we have the opportunity to influence its precise outcome".

The decision was welcomed by Shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson, but he warned Mrs May she may face opposition from her own backbenchers.

The power would allow prosecutors from any European Union country to place people under surveillance, bug telephone conversations, and monitor bank accounts.

Jago Russell, chief executive of campaign group Fair Trials International, said yesterday: "Police officers from Portugal to Poland would have free rein to demand recordings of our private conversations, copies of our bank statements and even our DNA.

"The UK Government has rightly said it will support new EU justice laws that make us safer and respect our civil liberties.

"The problem is, these proposals do neither."