Historical Development
The establishment of the European Police Office (Europol) was agreed in 1991 by the European Council in Maastricht. Already on 03 January 1994, the Europol Drugs Unit started operation in The Hague as the forerunner of Europol.
An international agreement in the form of a Convention was required for the binding formation of Europol. Following ratification by all the EU Member States, the Europol Convention came into force on 01 October 1998.
Europol’s development took place in the following stages:
| June 1991 | Initiative of Germany’s Chancellor Kohl in the European Council |
| December 1991 | Agreement at the EU summit in Maastricht to set up Europol in the form of co-operation at governmental level |
| January 1994 | Setting up of the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU) in the Hague as a forerunner organisation of Europol |
| July 1995 | Signing of the Europol Convention by the 15 EU Member States |
| December 1997 | Ratification of the Europol Convention by the German Parliament |
| October 1998 | Europol Convention came into force through which Europol, as an independent authority, became a legal entity |
| July 1999 | Europol commenced activities |
Europol co-operation framework
Europol was set up by the governments of the EU Member States to combat specific forms of serious crime. Europol is not a European institution (such as the European Parliament or the European Court of Justice), but is rather an expression of intergovernmental co-operation in the area of internal security within the EU.
Besides the co-operation between the 15 EU Member States under the umbrella of Europol, the Europol Convention envisages that Europol, for the fulfilment of its mandate with other states and international organisations, can maintain co-operative liaisons on the basis of bilateral co-operation agreements. Up to now, co-operation agreements have already been entered into with Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, the USA, ICPO-Interpol, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the European Central Bank.
A further element of the co-operation within the Europol co-operation framework is the secondment of liaison officers from the EU Member States to Europol. The main task of the Europol Liaison Officers (ELO) is to expedite the exchange of information and intelligence between the law enforcement agencies of the Member States. In addition, they also relay information within the framework of analysis projects. There are currently approx. 50 ELOs based at Europol, five of whom are from Germany.
Jurisdiction
Since 01 January 2003, Europol’s mandate has encompassed a very diversified spectrum of serious forms of international crime. Apart from the suppression of
- illicit drug trafficking,
- illegal trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances,
- facilitation of illegal immigration,
- vehicle trafficking,
- human trafficking (including child pornography),
- terrorism as well as
- counterfeit currency crime
- including payment card crime,
Europol is also responsible for the suppression of capital, property and environmental offences. These include the illegal trafficking in organs, computer crime as well as the illicit trafficking in hormones or endangered animal and plant species. These also incorporate the offences connected with these crime forms and the associated money laundering, although money laundering will be handled as a separate field of activity in future.
Prerequisites for the utilisation of Europol or of Europol becoming active are the factual indications that a criminal organisational structure exists, involving two or more EU Member States being impacted as well as the necessity for joint action on the part of the law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, the agencies of one Member State alone may not be able to achieve the objective of the measure or may not be able to achieve it in the same way.
Goals
Europol was set up to provide Europe, which is in the process of growing closer together, with an effective instrument for combating crime where questions of its own internal security are concerned.
In accordance with the wishes of the EU Member States, Europol is a central point for police information and should offer operative, strategic, technical and other information, which determine police tactical approaches or affect them, on a quick and secure basis.
Tasks
Europol was conceived as a service organization and has the task of providing support to the law enforcement agencies of the EU Member States in their fight against internationally organized crime; however, the principle of national sovereignty is maintained.
Within the sphere of competence described above, Europol is thus concerned with
- the exchange of information at police level
- the analysis and evaluation of matters relevant to police work as well as the support of the investigating authorities of the EU Member States.
Europol does not have any investigative competences and does not fulfil any search tasks.
National Unit
As part of cooperation with Europol, the EU Member States are required to set up National Units in their countries. The National Unit for the Federal Republic of Germany is the Bundeskriminalamt. In terms of external relations, this National Unit is the sole liaison between Europol and the central offices of the other Member States. At the domestic level, the National Unit ensures a flow of information between Europol on the one hand and state police, customs, and border patrol authorities on the other hand. Contact offices were set up for this purpose at the State Criminal Police Offices, Customs Criminal Investigation Office and at the Border Guard Directorate which ensure co-operation between Europol and the local authorities.
The National Units basically have the following tasks:
- On their own initiative, supply Europol with information and intelligence which are necessary for the fulfilment of its tasks,
- Handle Europol inquiries for information, intelligence and advice, keep information and intelligence updated,
- Evaluate information and intelligence for the competent authorities and transmit it onward to them in accordance with national law,
- Direct inquiries concerning advice, information, intelligence and analysis to Europol,
- Supply information for storage in Europol’s automated data collection system,
- Ensure compliance with the law in the exchange of information with Europol.
Data protection
The Europol Convention has a high data protection standard which guarantees to ensure the citizen’s right to informational self-determination. The fundamentals of German law are taken into consideration to a large extent, in particular, with regard to the rights of the concerned parties, correction, deletion and locking of data, but also where storage and deletion time limits as well as control entities are concerned. The categories for persons and data correspond to the standard which has been set in Germany pursuant to the data guidelines and the BKA Law.
Also the databases maintained at Europol are designed with a high degree of data protection. For this reason, only secure data from all the Member States can be directly accessed. In contrast, sensitive data, i. e. information which has not yet been confirmed, is dealt with on a strictly secret basis and cannot be called up online.
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