Justice and home affairs : Change nearing

To opt in or opt out, that is Britain's question

With 1 December fast approaching, the United Kingdom is facing choices on its exemptions on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. London has already notified the EU that it wants out of the 135 pre-Lisbon Treaty legislative texts on 30 November, but will sign back up to 35 of them on 1 December 2014. These include the European arrest warrant, the Eurojust and Europol agencies along with a handful of Schengen texts, even though the UK is not part of the border-free area (on Schengen, there will have to be unanimity). "In fact, everything is ready for the transition to take place overnight," says a European source, "except that Spain has reservations". Madrid does not want to see the UK obtain access to the Schengen Information System (SIS) enabling states to issue alerts on suspect individuals or objects unless it also applies the 2008 Prüm decision on data exchange (DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registration).