| Author (Corporate) | European Commission |
|---|---|
| Series Title | COM |
| Series Details | (2013) 173 final (27.3.13) |
| Publication Date | 27/03/2013 |
| Content Type | Policy-making |
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The European Police Office (Europol) started as an intergovernmental body regulated by a Convention concluded between the Member States, which entered into force in 1999. By virtue of a Council Decision adopted in 2009, Europol became an EU agency funded by the EU budget. Europol’s role is to provide support to national law enforcement services’ action and their mutual cooperation in the prevention of and fight against serious crime and terrorism. Europol facilitates the exchange of information between Member States’ law enforcement authorities and provides criminal analysis to help national police forces carry out cross border investigations. The European Police College (CEPOL) was established as an EU agency in 2005, in charge of activities related to the training of law enforcement officers. It aims to facilitate cooperation between national police forces by organising courses with a European policing dimension. It defines common curricula on specific topics, disseminates relevant research and best practice, coordinates an exchange programme for senior police officers and trainers, and may act as a partner in EU grants for specific projects. The European Council, in “the Stockholm Programme – An Open and Secure Europe Serving and Protecting Citizens”, called on Europol to evolve and “become a hub for information exchange between the law enforcement authorities of the Member States, a service provider and a platform for law enforcement services”, and called for the establishment of European training schemes and exchange programmes for all relevant law enforcement professionals at national and EU level, with CEPOL playing a key role in ensuring the European dimension. In its Communication ‘The EU Internal Security Strategy in Action: Five steps towards a more secure Europe’, the Commission identified key challenges, principles and guidelines for dealing with security issues within the EU, and suggested a number of actions involving Europol and CEPOL to address the risks that serious crime and terrorism pose to security. Crime is one of the five main concerns of EU citizens. Asked what issues the EU institutions should focus on, the fight against crime was mentioned in fourth place. In a recent survey most EU internet users expressed high levels of concern about cyber security and cybercrime. In this context, EU agencies are needed to effectively and efficiently support law enforcement cooperation, information sharing and training. The Common Approach on EU decentralised agencies endorsed by the European Parliament, Council and Commission in July 2012 sets out principles for the governance arrangements of agencies such as Europol and CEPOL. The Common Approach also notes that “merging agencies should be considered in cases where their respective tasks are overlapping, where synergies can be contemplated or when agencies would be more efficient if inserted in a bigger structure”. Merging Europol and CEPOL into a single agency, situated at the current headquarters of Europol in The Hague would create important synergies and efficiency gains. Combining the operational police cooperation know-how of Europol with the training and education expertise of CEPOL would strengthen the links and create synergies between the two fields. Contacts between the operational and the training staff working within a single agency would help identify training needs, thus increasing the relevance and focus of EU training, to the benefit of EU police cooperation overall. Duplication of support functions in the two agencies would be avoided, and resulting savings could be redeployed and invested in core operational and training functions. This is particularly important in an economic context, where national and EU resources are scarce and where resources to strengthen EU law enforcement training might not otherwise be available. This proposal for a regulation therefore provides for a legal framework for a new Europol which succeeds and replaces Europol as established by the Council Decision 2009/371/JHA of 6 April 2009 establishing the European Police Office (Europol), and CEPOL as established by Council Decision 2005/681/JHA establishing the European Police College (CEPOL). |
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| Source Link | http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:173:FIN |
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| Subject Categories | Justice and Home Affairs, Politics and International Relations |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
