Commission U-turn over Europol officers’ immunity

The European Commission is ready to agree that Europol officers should not have immunity from prosecution when they are operating in international investigation teams, for the sake of securing agreement on converting the organisation into an EU agency.

One of the most important problems that needed to be resolved before converting Europol into an agency was the status of so-called joint investigation teams (JITs). These are ad-hoc groups of police officers, from different member states, set up to investigate serious crimes with a cross-border dimension. They can also include staff from Europol. At issue is what would happen if members of a JIT were suspected of acting illegally during its operations and member state authorities wished to question or even prosecute them.

The Commission's initial thinking was that Europol officers would be subject only to 'ex-post' lifting of immunity. This would have meant that any member state which suspected someone of committing an offence, while serving in a JIT, would have had to make a request to the director of Europol for the officer's immunity to be lifted. The director would have been able to refuse such requests if they were not considered to be in the European interest.

The immunity issue has been a major cause of concern in a large number of member states, notably the UK and Germany, who insisted that they should be able to question foreign officers immediately and prosecute them in accordance with national law.

According to diplomatic sources, Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administrative affairs, prevented the Commission from backing down earlier. He argued against ex-ante immunity because it went against the principles of the EU staff regulations, which would apply to the staff of Europol in its new legal form. He has been persuaded, however, that flexibility is needed, though limited to the JITs. Member state ambassadors were informed of the Commission's climb-down on 14 February.

Proposals to turn Europol into an agency were made by the Commission in December 2006.

Among the perceived advantages is that it would allow the organisation to be funded directly from the EU budget and that it would become easier for member states to adapt the organisation's powers and responsibilities to changing needs.

The draft law is expected to be discussed at a meeting of justice and home affairs ministers on 28 February. The meeting will examine other issues which need to be resolved before the conversion can be completed, including member states' concerns that Europol will become more expensive once it is an agency and that EU rules on recruitment will make it difficult to appoint people with police experience.

Slovenia has indicated that it intends to secure agreement on the legislation during its presidency of the Council of Ministers, which ends in June.

The European Commission is ready to agree that Europol officers should not have immunity from prosecution when they are operating in international investigation teams, for the sake of securing agreement on converting the organisation into an EU agency.