Portugal seeks to boost Europol’s powers

Date: 04/05/2000

By John Shelley

THE EU's fledgling crime-fighting agency Europol could be given the power to launch and coordinate cross-border investigation teams before the end of this year under plans drawn up by the Portuguese presidency.

Lisbon is pushing for the new rules to be agreed swiftly to fulfil a pledge made by Union leaders at last October's special summit on justice and home affairs in Tampere to set up multinational joint teams to combat trafficking and terrorism "without delay".

Until now, member states have argued that this could only happen once long-stalled legislation to govern 'mutual legal assistance' (MLA), which is designed to bolster cooperation between member states in fighting crime, has been approved by the Council of Ministers. But the Portuguese presidency believes it has found a way to speed up the process, allowing Europol to set up joint teams without waiting for the MLA to be implemented.

"We would have to wait two or three years to have the MLA in force. From our point of view, we need to prepare some other framework so we can do it immediately," said one diplomat.

Originally the Portuguese had suggested that the clause on joint teams in the draft MLA legislation could be removed from the text and passed as a self-standing piece of legislation. But other member states objected to this approach, arguing that the 30-year-old proposal could be delayed still further without the impetus provided by their desire to see the joint teams clause implemented.

This prompted the Portuguese to go back to the original Europol convention to see whether there was any other way of achieving a breakthrough. "We now think it will be possible to set up joint teams without changing the convention," said the diplomat.

If Lisbon's plan is approved by other member states, Europol officials would be allowed to make requests to conduct cross-border investigations in conjunction with national police forces, although these would not be legally binding. Such investigations could be coordinated out of Europol's headquarters in The Hague.

The plan is due to be considered by the Europol working group next Friday (12 May) and then at a meeting of justice and home affairs ministers at the end of this month.

A Europol official welcomed the proposal, saying: "The member states have said that they want us to have these powers. For me, the situation as it is at the moment is not in the spirit of Tampere."

But he warned that the move would represent only a half-way-house for the organisation, because officials from member states would retain key decision-making powers until there was a formal change in the legislation.

"Only then will we be able to have executive powers in the running of joint teams," he added.

The EU's fledgling crime-fighting agency, Europol, could be given the power to launch and coordinate cross-border investigation teams before the end of this year under plans drawn up by the Portuguese presidency.