Europol: The European Police Office

The establishment of Europol was agreed in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union of 7 February 1992 in order to improve cooperation between Member States in the areas of drug trafficking, terrorism and other serious forms of international organized crime.

At present, Europol's mandate is to fight against:

• illicit drug trafficking

• illicit trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances

• crimes involving clandestine immigration networks

• illicit vehicle trafficking

• trafficking in human beings

• illegal money-laundering activities in connection with these forms of crime.

As stated in the Europol Convention and subject to an anticipated Council of Ministers decision, Europol's mandate is to be extended to include terrorism and other forms of serious international organized crime. Europol supports Member States by:

• facilitating the exchange of data (personal and non-personal), in accordance with national law, between Europol liaison officers seconded to Europol by the Member States as representatives of the different national law enforcement agencies;

• providing operational analyses in support of Member States' operations, general strategic reports and crime analyses on the basis of information and intelligence supplied by Member States, generated by Europol or gathered from other sources;

• providing expertise and technical support for investigations and ongoing operations carried out by law enforcement agencies of the Member States under the supervi­sion and legal responsibility of the Member States concerned.

There are currently (1999) about 180 staff members within Europol from all Member States. Of these, 41 are Europol liaison officers belonging to and acting as representa­tives of a variety of law enforcement agencies (police, customs, gendarmerie, im­migration services, etc.) from all Member States. It is estimated that, by the year 2003, the Europol staff level will be approximately 350, including the Europol liaison officers and security staff.

The Europol liaison officers, together with the Europol officers, analysts and other ex­perts, guarantee an effective, fast and reliable multilingual and multidisciplinary ser­vice 24 hours a day.

The Europol Convention states that Europol shall establish and maintain a computer­ized system to allow the input, access and analysis of data.

The Europol Computer System has three principal components:

• an information system

• an analysis system

• an index system.

The system had been developed and put into operation by the year 2001.

Europol is accountable to the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs, which is responsible for the main control and guidance functions of Europol. It appoints the Di­rector and the Deputy Directors and adopts the budget. A joint Supervisory Body, comprising two data protection experts from each Member State, monitors the content and use of all personal data held by Europol, ensuring that the activities of Europol are fully in line with the data protection regulations for storage, processing and utilization.

The creation of Europol is a milestone in the efforts to strengthen law enforcement co­operation in a Europe without frontiers.