Europol
“In full operation since 1999, Europol is associated with the European Union as the result of a decision by the political and legislative bodies of the Union. EuropolÂ’s activities are legally framed and bound to certain areas of investigation. Yet, Europol is nonetheless characterized by a degree of autonomy to determine the specific means and objectives of its policing and counter-terrorist programs and is oriented at an efficient sharing of information among police on the basis of professional standards of policing.
Although Europol is formally mandated by the European Union and overseen by the regulatory bodies of the EU, the organization is also dependent in its activities on the police agencies of EU states and these agencies are highly bureaucratized in respect of the knowledge and know-how of their enforcement duties. Europol relies on the participation of existing police institutions in the EU for the staffing of the headquarters and the Europol National Units in the 25 member states. Europol operates within the context of an existing professional culture of policing that is highly bureaucratized. Europol is guided by a formal set of documents that lays out the organizationÂ’s functions, but the political decision-making process in the EU can be relatively ineffective in fostering police cooperation. However, while counter-terrorism cooperation at the political level sometimes remains an expression of goodwill with little consequences, police and security agencies can achieve cooperation in practical matters. Also, Europol maintains relations with countries outside the European Union, such as Switzerland, Turkey, Colombia, and the United States, and with other international police organizations. As such Europol can effectively broaden its mandate beyond the restraints of formal political decision-making.
In November 2001, a specialized counter-terrorism unit, the Counter-Terrorism Task Force was instituted at the Europol headquarters. A year later, the Task Force was incorporated into EuropolÂ’s Serious Crime Department, but after the terrorist bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004, it was re-established as a separate entity. EuropolÂ’s policing and counter-terrorism operations are organized in the rationalized terms of an efficient control of crime. Besides the creation of the Counter-Terrorism Task Force as a specialized unit and the development of functional programs to combat terrorism, the relevance of instrumental rationality in Europol can also be observed in the organizationÂ’s emphasis on efficiency in operations. An emphasis is placed in EuropolÂ’s crime-fighting activities on establishing swift methods of communication and information exchange among the participating agencies. The agencies participating in Europol need not contact one another directly but can route information via The Hague by means of an ‘Information Exchange SystemÂ’ (INFO-EX) that enables encrypted electronic messages. Similarly, EuropolÂ’s liaison agreements with the police and intelligence services of non-EU nations functions to ease international cooperation across the boundaries of the European Union.”(1)
Notes
- Deflem, Mathieu. 2010. “Police and Counter-Terrorism: A Sociological Theory of International Cooperation.” Pp. 163-172 in Emerging Transnational (In)security Governance: A Statist-Transnationalist Approach, edited by Ersel Aydinli. London: Routledge.
Europol (European Police Office) and the Treaties of the European Union
Description of Europol (European Police Office) provided by the European Union Commission: Europol is referred to in Article 29 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, as a means of providing citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice. The idea of a European Police Office was first raised at the Luxembourg European Council (June 1991). The plan then was to set up a new body which would provide a structure for developing police cooperation between Member States in preventing and combating serious forms of international organised crime. Provision for the Office was made in the Treaty of Maastricht, and it began its activities in January 1994 as the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU). This initially confined its efforts to the fight against drugs, but its terms of reference were gradually extended to other serious crimes. The Convention establishing Europol was signed in July 1995 and entered into force on 1 October 1998, but only became fully operational on 1 July 1999. Europol took over the activities of the EDU, for example in the areas of drug trafficking, clandestine immigration networks, trafficking in stolen vehicles, trafficking in human beings (including child pornography), counterfeiting currency and falsification of other means of payment, trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances, terrorism and money-laundering. The Treaty of Amsterdam conferred a number of different tasks on Europol: coordinating and implementing specific investigations conducted by the Member States’ authorities, developing specialised expertise in order to help Member States in their investigations into organised crime, and establishing contacts with prosecutors and investigators who specialise in the fight against organised crime. Europol’s role was enhanced in December 2001 when its remit was extended to all forms of international crime as defined in the annex to the Europol Convention. Two more fundamental suggestions were also made, concerning the possibility of giving Europol genuine powers of investigation and ways of exercising democratic control over the Office. The European Constitution currently being ratified provides for the Office’s powers to be strengthened in cases of serious crime affecting two or more Member States, allowing it to coordinate, organise and conduct investigations jointly with national authorities. The Constitution also provides that the European Parliament is to exercise control over Europol together with the national parliaments. It must abide by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and will be subject to judicial review by the Court of Justice.
Europol and Europe
There is an entry on europol in the European legal encyclopedia.
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Further Reading
- Entry “Europol” in the work “A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein”, by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)
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- Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
- Types of Treaties
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Europol (European Police Office) and the Treaties of the European Union
Description of Europol (European Police Office) provided by the European Union Commission: Europol is referred to in Article 29 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, as a means of providing citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice. The idea of a European Police Office was first raised at the Luxembourg European Council (June 1991). The plan then was to set up a new body which would provide a structure for developing police cooperation between Member States in preventing and combating serious forms of international organised crime. Provision for the Office was made in the Treaty of Maastricht, and it began its activities in January 1994 as the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU). This initially confined its efforts to the fight against drugs, but its terms of reference were gradually extended to other serious crimes. The Convention establishing Europol was signed in July 1995 and entered into force on 1 October 1998, but only became fully operational on 1 July 1999. Europol took over the activities of the EDU, for example in the areas of drug trafficking, clandestine immigration networks, trafficking in stolen vehicles, trafficking in human beings (including child pornography), counterfeiting currency and falsification of other means of payment, trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances, terrorism and money-laundering. The Treaty of Amsterdam conferred a number of different tasks on Europol: coordinating and implementing specific investigations conducted by the Member States’ authorities, developing specialised expertise in order to help Member States in their investigations into organised crime, and establishing contacts with prosecutors and investigators who specialise in the fight against organised crime. Europol’s role was enhanced in December 2001 when its remit was extended to all forms of international crime as defined in the annex to the Europol Convention. Two more fundamental suggestions were also made, concerning the possibility of giving Europol genuine powers of investigation and ways of exercising democratic control over the Office. The European Constitution currently being ratified provides for the Office’s powers to be strengthened in cases of serious crime affecting two or more Member States, allowing it to coordinate, organise and conduct investigations jointly with national authorities. The Constitution also provides that the European Parliament is to exercise control over Europol together with the national parliaments. It must abide by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and will be subject to judicial review by the Court of Justice.
Resources
See Also
Popular Treaties Topics
- Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
- Types of Treaties
- International Treaties
- Famous Treaties
- Law of Treaties
- Numbered Treaties
Hierarchical Display of Europol
European Union > European construction > European Union > Area of freedom, security and justice > EU police cooperation
Europol
Concept of Europol
See the dictionary definition of Europol.
Characteristics of Europol
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Translation of Europol
- Spanish: Europol
- French: Europol
- German: Europol
- Italian: Europol
- Portuguese: Europol
- Polish: Europol
Thesaurus of Europol
European Union > European construction > European Union > Area of freedom, security and justice > EU police cooperation > Europol
See also
- European Police Office
- European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation
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