On Wednesday 21 October, the interior ministers of the European Union have been invited to a teleconference on the future of the European police cooperation agency Europol. As the Commission is due to present a new mandate for the agency headed by Belgian Catherine de Bolle on 15 December, they will look at its future role.
The German EU Council Presidency is continuing a process of reflection already begun under the previous presidential trio on the future of law enforcement in the EU.
The aim is “to establish a common understanding among Member States of the current challenges and operational [Europol’s] needs and to identify areas where action is needed”, says a preparatory note. The continuation of these exchanges will serve to feed into the proposal for a new mandate.
The German Presidency would like an EU Council statement to be issued at the end of this videoconference. This would contain 10 points and would aim in particular at highlighting Europol’s “crucial” role as a clearing house for information exchange between Member States. The declaration could therefore confirm the “successful concept of Europol, strengthen and develop it”, as well as adapt it to new challenges.
There is no shortage of these challenges. The Commission said on Tuesday 20 October that Europol had been asked by France on 16 October to detect and remove images of Samuel Paty from online platforms, the professor beheaded the same day by a terrorist.
Paris has activated a “crisis protocol involving Europol and Member States”, a Commission spokesperson said. 65 instances were detected on 9 platforms. A European regulation on the rapid withdrawal of such content is currently being negotiated at interinstitutional level and will be the subject of a trilogue on Thursday 29 October.
The EU Council declaration is also expected to emphasise the modalities of cooperation of the European agency with national police forces and the private sector and technological innovation. It could insist that Europol needs to be able to manage a large amount of data, supported by data protection safeguards. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)