Europol could win powers in overhaul

By David Cronin

Date: 20/04/06

Experts from national administrations are to meet next week to work on a plan to modernise Europol, the Union's police co-operation office.

The working group has been charged with preparing options for reform, to be put to a 1 June meeting of EU justice and interior ministers.

The aim is to improve cross-border police co-operation, to strengthen Europol's mandate and to make it "more operational".

The modernisation plans would change the legal footing of Europol and integrate its funding into the EU budget.

According to draft conclusions prepared for the 1 June meeting, which have already been circulated to national governments, the convention which created and currently governs Europol would be replaced by a decision of the Council of Ministers. The Commission would be asked to prepare a proposal for such a decision.

With this new legal footing, Europol would be financed directly from the EU budget, rather than, as now, by contributions from the national governments.

The working group will have to discuss how a revamped Europol might operate in practice. Extending Europol's mandate has long been contentious. At a national level, police powers are monitored by the courts. At a European level, the strengthening of police powers would raises questions about for whom Europol works, particularly in the absence of an Office of a European Public Prosecutor which would have been created by the EU constitution, and to whom it would be accountable.

According to the draft conclusions, the Council would set the strategic priorities of Europol and member states would be given "an appropriate role" in the supervision of the management of Europol and in its operational planning. The draft conclusions provide for "the possibility of an appropriate control of Europol by the European Parliament".

They also suggest that the Parliament might set up a joint body, with national parliaments, "to follow Europol's activities".

UK Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton-Dunn, the European Parliament's rapporteur on organised crime, said he did not believe that such a "grand committee" would work because it would not be practical to get "the key parliamentarians together in the right place at the right time", but he felt that bringing Europol within the scope of the EU budget would make it easier for MEPs to scrutinise its activities.

The presidency's aim is to turn Europol, which is based in the Hague, into something much closer to an EU agency, such as Frontex, the European borders agency.

Europol's tasks have widened considerably since it started out as the Europol Drugs Unit in 1994. It now has an analytical and co-ordinating role in fighting a range of crimes, including terrorism, forgery, money-laundering, vehicle theft, child pornography and human trafficking.

Jan Velleman from the European Confederation of Police (EuroCOP) said that Europol needed a more permanent staffing structure. "With the current system, Europol is mainly staffed by officers seconded from member states," he said. "This huge turnover of personnel makes it difficult to maintain organisational development."

A spokesman for Europol said he was unable to comment on the Austrian proposal before it had been agreed by EU governments.

Article anticipates the meeting of a working group of experts from the EU's Member States, end of April 2006, on reform of the European Union's Police Office, Europol. The aim was to improve cross-border police co-operation, to strengthen Europol's mandate and to make it 'more operational'.

Europol: Homepage http://www.europol.europa.eu/

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