Dutch aim to get organized on tackling the mob

By David Cronin

Date: 16/09/04

THE Dutch EU presidency is devising a strategy on tackling organized crime after acknowledging that the quality of information supplied by national police forces to Europol "needs serious improvement".

While the EU's police agency was given a mandate in 2002 to address all forms of international crime, a Council of Ministers' paper makes clear it does not have sufficient information to analyze properly the gravity of problems such as drug smuggling and trafficking in women and children.

The document advocates that the EU states' authorities join forces "in developing a format indicating what minimum information should be at the disposal of Europol".

Drawn up by the Dutch presidency, it says there is "massive support" among crime analysts for focusing on a narrow list of priorities if cross-border crime is to be tackled effectively.

Arguing that cooperation between authorities in member states "could only succeed in the case of strong common interest", it says, "only two or three problems in the field of organized crime could be tackled together" at EU level. Counterfeiting of the euro and the drugs trade are cited as two examples.

Crime analysts attending a seminar in The Hague in June concluded that it would be useful to have joint investigative teams established between different EU police forces. But lack of staff and financial resources have so far prevented this happening. Some participants in the seminar argued that assets seized from crime networks could be used to finance future investigations of such joint teams. Known as "asset-forfeiture sharing", this practice is already used in the US.

Michael Levi, of the University of Cardiff, said there was a need for national police forces to be appraised of Europol's role to combat their reluctance to hand over sensitive information to its central database.

"In any investigative body, a local detective will be reluctant to pass information higher up because he loses control over it," Levi added. "He sees a giant, far away bureaucracy. So part of it is about communication - showing people what is the point in what Europol is doing."

A spokesman for Eurocop, the umbrella group for police staff organizations, said the "problem of trust" between police forces and Europol was compounded by wrangling between France and Germany over which should net the top job in Europol. Berlin is adamant that outgoing director Jürgen Storbeck should be reappointed, whereas Paris favours Frenchman Jacques Franquet for the post.

In spite of a clear mandate given to Europol in 2002 to address all from of international crime, co-operation and exchange of information with national authorities is still insufficient.

Council of the EU: Report No. ST10925/03ORI http://consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/dynadoc/out/jai/EN/ST010925_03ORIEN.pdf

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