EU agencies - Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European ...

European Police Office (Europol)Europol is the European law enforcementorganisation which aims at improvingthe effectiveness and cooperationof the competent authorities inthe Member States in preventing andcombating terrorism, unlawful drugtrafficking and other serious forms ofinternational organised crime.Europol’s aim is to help the EUMember States cooperate more closelyand effectively in preventing andcombating organised internationalcrime, and in particular drug trafficking,immigration networks, vehicletrafficking, trafficking in humanbeings including sexual abuse ofchildren, forgery of money and othermeans of payment, trafficking inradioactive and nuclear substances,and terrorism.Europol is a multinational andmultidisciplinary agency comprisingregular police officers as well as staffmembers from customs, immigration,security services, border and financialpolice and whose staff members arerequired to have nationalities originatingfrom EU Member States.Europol supports Member Statesby providing various platforms andlevels of expertise for the purposesof police cooperation in the EU andsometimes outside the EU within thescope of cooperation agreements.Specifically, Europol is competentto facilitate information exchange,provide operational analysis and supportoperations in Member States andprovide expertise, training and technicalsupport.Europol additionally providesstrategic support via its two mainpublications, the EU organised crimethreat assessment (OCTA) and the EUterrorism situation and trend report(TE-SAT), which are produced annually.Europol is accountable to the Justiceand Home Affairs Council, i.e. thejustice and home affairs ministers ofall the EU countries.Established: 1999Director: Max-Peter RatzelStaff: 460 Europol staff and120 liaison officersAddress:Raamweg 472509 LW The HagueNetherlandsTel. (31-70) 302 50 00Fax (31-70) 302 58 96Website: www.europol.europa.eu26Europol: Promoting freedom, security and justice in the EU by improving theeffectiveness and cooperation of the competent authorities in the Member Statesin preventing and combating all forms of serious international crime.