Brussels, 08/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council has authorised the Director of Europol (without debate, during the meeting of the Culture/Audiovisual Council on 5 November) to conclude cooperation agreements to fight crime with Poland, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia. These agreements, the first allowing operational cooperation between Europol and the candidate countries, had already been signed but could not yet enter into force, following a French "parliamentary reserve", which had prevented their approval by the JHA Council of 27 October (see EUROPE of 5 October, p.16).
These agreements allow information exchange concerning the illegal trade of drugs, the trafficking of nuclear and radioactive matter, illegal immigration channels, the trade in human beings, the trafficking of stolen vehicles, and also crimes committed or likely to be committed in the context of terrorist activities that are detrimental to life, to physical integrity, to the freedom of persons or goods, counterfeiting of money and the forging of other means of payment, as well as money laundering linked to these forms of crime.