Brussels, 11/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 11 January 2013, the European Union and the United States agreed to step up their cooperation in the fight against cybercrime, announced the director of Europol, Rob Wainwright, at the opening of the EC3 anti-cybercrime centre in The Hague, the Netherlands. The deal will boost cooperation and the exchange of information beween the EU and the US, he stated. The agreement was signed by Wainwright and John Morton, director of the US Immigration and Customs Agency, which includes a cybercrime centre (C3), the US equivalent of the EC3. The new EC3 centre will provide expertise to police investigations in the member states and coordinate data, but will not have any coercive powers. It will deal with a range of cybercrime, such as child pornography, raids on computer systems and card payment fraud. In a report published on 7 January 2013, Europol said it had observed an increase in card fraud from outside the EU (particularly from the US) involving European payment cards. Card payment terminals in the US are not yet up to international security standards. (SP/transl.fl)