Europol, the EU organisation that deals with criminal intelligence, exists to support the law enforcement activity of Member States. Europol aims to improve the cooperation between Member States' authorities on intelligence in the fight against serious organised crime and terrorism, with particular emphasis on criminal organisations. Europol is not a police force and cannot operate in any country.
Michael Cashman MEP, Labour's spokesperson on Justice and Home Affairs, said: "Organised crime does not stop at national borders. Europol is an effective tool in the fight against organised crime, terrorism and paedophiles."
Claude Moraes MEP, Labour member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, welcomed the proposal to make Europol an EU agency. "Establishing Europol as an EU agency will boost the democratic oversight of the European Parliament of the European Police Office."
Parliament's Report
The European Parliament's proposal also contains improvements to Europol's mandate and an extension of its tasks, particularly in the field of data processing and data protection. The proposal:
- extends the mandate of Europol to criminality. This willstrengthen thesupport provided by Europol to Member States in relation to cross-border criminal investigations where involvement of organised crime is not demonstrated from the start;
- enables Europol to manage new information processing tools on, for example, terrorists or paedophiles;
- allows for the interoperability of data processing systems - in other words making the Europol system compatible with national systems;
- allows national authoritiesto have direct access to the Europol Information System.
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Notes to editors:
Europol started operations in 1994 as the Europol drugs Unit. Progressively other important areas of criminality were added, and Europol's mandate was extended to deal with serious international and organised crime.
Located in The Hague, Europol supports Member State law enforcement authorities by facilitating the exchange of information, providing operational analysis, and generating strategic threat assessment reports.
Europol & the UK
Here are details of four successful operations involving Europol and the UK:
Operation 1 - Armed robberies
This operation targeted an armed and violent Eastern European gang which had committed around twenty armed robberies against high quality jeweller's shops in the UK and over 200 similar incidents across the EU. At the end of 2007 officers from three UK forces visited Estonia, in an action co-ordinated by Europol, to search eight addresses and arrest seven suspects. With the support of Europol, UK police have identified offenders in 16 out of 24 cases and brought prosecutions in eleven cases.
Operation 2 - Child pornography
This was a joint Europol - Eurojust operation which targeted a child pornography network. The targets were two commercial producers, a Belgian and an Italian, who were arrested, as well as the internet forum organisers. In addition, some of the victims were also able to be identified thus allowing the necessary support services to intervene. Europol co-ordinated the international police response and UK law enforcement authorities continue to investigate nearly one hundred suspects.
Operation 3 - Counter-terrorism
Europol played a key role in the operation that led the Greater Manchester Police to prosecute Abdul Rahman for offences relating to terrorism. The key evidence was developed from documents seized from Rahman's address in Manchester, but much of the correspondence between the defendant in and his associates in Pakistan and Afghanistan was in Arabic. Europol experts supported the GMP-led investigation and translated and analysed the material. They found clear evidence of his involvement in supporting terrorism. Rahman was sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Operation 4 - People trafficking
This is an operation that was started by a Midlands police force in 2006 and it was subsequently handed over to SOCA. The investigation focussed on people trafficking involving Chinese and Iraqis. Europol was able to link this investigation to an enquiry the Dutch police were studying into a trafficking route through the Netherlands. A joint operation was conducted with Europol providing analytical support and coordination leading to a number of arrests in The Netherlands. Upon arresting the UK organiser, police recovered more than 100 passports and identity cards from a number of countries, all of which are a source of further Europol research.
For more information please call the European Parliamentary Labour Party press officer, Silke Thomson on +32 479 790 053.
