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europa
the role of europol in fighting new crime trends -
innovative policing and Future challenges
di Max-Peter Ratzel
Europol is the European Law Enforcement Organisation which aims at improving the
effectiveness and cooperation of the competent authorities in the Member States
in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and other serious
forms of international organised crime. The mission of Europol is to make a significant
contribution to the European Union’s law enforcement action against organised crime
and terrorism, with an emphasis on targeting criminal organisations.
the establishment of europol was agreed in the Maastricht treaty on european union
of 7 February 1992. Based in the Hague, Netherlands, europol started limited operations
on 3 January 1994 as the europol drugs unit (edu) fighting against drug trafficking.
progressively, other important areas of criminality were added to its mandate. on 1 January
2002, the mandate of europol was extended to deal with all serious forms of international
crime as listed in the annex to the europol Convention. the europol Convention was
subsequently ratified by all eu Member states and came into force on 1 october 1998.
Following a number of legal acts related to the Convention, europol commenced its full
activities on 1 July 1999.
Europol’s tasks and responsibilities
europol was created “for the purposes of preventing and combating terrorism,
unlawful drug trafficking and other serious forms of international crime […] in connection
with the organisation of a union-wide system for exchanging information” 1 . the organisation
supports the law enforcement authorities of eu member states in the prevention and
repression of organised crime and terrorism.
europol facilitates the exchange of information between the Member states, collates
and analyses information, and notifies the Member states of information and connections
identified between (cross-border) criminal offences.
europol assists investigations in the Member states by forwarding all relevant
information to the national units of the relevant country and by maintaining a computerised
system of collected information 2 .
the prerequisite for europol to act is a request from a Member state contingent
upon a minimum of two Member states being involved in an investigation. additionally
1 treaty of the european union (Maastricht treaty), official Journal C 191, 29 July 1992, article K. 1.
2 europol Convention, article 3.1.
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