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European intelligence
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| 10 March 2006 |
By Steven Brown
When the UK took over the EU Presidency for six months in July 2005, public attention became focused once again on the European community and how the EU affects the way that Britain is governed.
There can be no denying that the EU has been a vehicle for change. This is as true in policing as it is in trade or commerce, where core business has certainly been feeling the impact of closer ties with continental Europe.
For the last few years, British law enforcement has had to come to terms with the fact that crime is increasingly international in nature and, if an effective and enduring response is to be found, the UK cannot afford to go it alone.
However, despite this, the European police office, Europol, has a surprisingly low profile within UK law enforcement.
In this article, I outline the basics of Europol to give officers an understanding of what it does and how it operates.
Europol is the EU agency which handles criminal intelligence and supports investigations conducted by law enforcement officers in EU member states.
It is commonly believed that Europol 'agents' have police powers valid anywhere in the EU. In fact, Europol is neither a European FBI, nor a police force.
Europol officials have no executive powers, and although a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers on 14 January 2006 approved in principle a proposal that Europol officials be permitted to take an active role in advising on an operational basis, they cannot search anyone, cannot arrest anyone and are not even authorised to conduct investigations.
There are two parts to Europol, both of which are based in the same premises in The Hague. One side is made up of 25 offices representing the 25 EU member states and each is staffed by nationally seconded law enforcement officers. The other side consists of Europol officials who are employed directly by Europol itself.
The former work under their national laws, procedures and line management, while the latter work under EU legislation, Europol's rules and the organisational management structure.
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