The evolution of European Union criminal law (1957-2012)

was to develop a system for strategic and operational analysis, although there was yet no
possibility of storing personal data in any central database. 287
Towards the mid-nineties police cooperation was further streamlined, as EDU was
quickly replaced by a European Police Office - Europol - whose Convention was
approved in June 1995. Europol’s remit was significantly larger than EDU’s. Its
objective was
“to improve […] the effectiveness and cooperation of competent authorities in the
Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and
other serious forms of international crime where there are factual indications that an
organised criminal structure is involved and two or more Member States are affected by
the forms of crime in question in such a way as to require a common approach by the
Member States owing to the scale, significance and consequences of the offences
concerned.” 288
This broad remit was to be achieved progressively and initially Europol was to focus on
a more limited number of offences, namely those of
unlawful drug trafficking, trafficking in nuclear and radioactive substances, illegal
immigrant smuggling, trade in human beings and motor vehicle crime” 289
which corresponded largely to EDU’s remit. Europol was to pursue these objectives by
facilitating cooperation between Member States, namely by facilitating the exchange of
information by obtaining, collating and analysing information and intelligence, by aiding
national investigations, forwarding information to national units, maintaining an
information system, and providing for strategic intelligence among other similar tasks. 290
But the streamlining did not end here as, outside the framework of the TEU(M), police
cooperation was also being agreed to and developed. This happened mostly with the
signature of the Schengen Convention. As seen in chapter one, the Schengen Convention
was signed in 1990 and laid down detailed rules on visas and asylum, cooperation
287 W. Bruggeman, “Europol: A Castle or a House of Cards” in A. Pauly (ed) De Schengen a
Maastricht: voie royale et course d’obstacles (Maastricht: European Institute of Public
Administration, 1996) 17, 23. See same author, 24- 25, for specific examples of cases in which
EDU intervened.
288 Article 2 (1) of the Convention on the establishment of a European Police Office (Europol
Convention), OJ C316/02 [1995].
289 Article 2 (2) of the Convention, ibid..
290 Article 3, ibid..
80