On Thursday 19 March, Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, presented the key priorities of Europol’s future reform to the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties. Faced with criminal networks acting like “multinationals” with their own “IT departments”, the Commission intends to make the agency a “truly operational” player in the global geopolitical context.
According to Mr Brunner, the coming mandate should be built around four priorities: - fill information gaps by making information sharing the “default option”; - provide direct operational support to national investigators; - win the “technological arms race”; - strengthen cooperation with third countries. To support these ambitions, he proposes to “double Europol’s budget”.
Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish) agreed with the Commissioner on the urgent need for a strong European response, pointing out that “about 600 criminals are directing serious organised crime against Sweden from abroad”.
On the technical side, Fabrice Leggeri (PfE, French) called for Europol to be “freed from administrative burden” and from excessive regulation. He was particularly concerned about potential reactions from the European Data Protection Supervisor, which he said could “put a stop to cooperation” between Europol and other bodies.
However, the issue of sharing sensitive information on a transnational scale remains a major concern for the parliamentary committee itself, as demonstrated by the exchanges with the deputy director of Europol last month (see EUROPE 13815/20).
Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian) pointed out that any transnational cooperation on databases must be carried out “without undermining data protection safeguards”, advocating “enhanced democratic scrutiny and oversight” that are proportionate to the agency’s new powers. Similarly, Giuseppe Antoci (The Left, Italian) voiced concerned about preserving “the balance between protecting privacy and the work to be done on encrypted chats, but also on cryptocurrencies”.
In response, Mr Brunner said that European investigators’ access to personal data was crucial to the effectiveness of investigations. He also stressed that his aim was not to turn Europol into a “European FBI turning up at your door”, but that simply provides solid support to the Member States. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)