Brussels, 24/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Luxembourg Presidency and the European Commission seized the opportunity provided by the investiture ceremony of the new director of Europol to call on the French and the Dutch to say “yes” to the European Constitution. “We need the European Constitution to be able to move forward with the security area”, Commissioner Frattini said in a telephone interview after the ceremony held at the seat of the European Police Office in The Hague. “The Treaty not only makes police cooperation move forward but the whole European security area”, the Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs stressed, noting that “all the polls show more security is wanted in Europe”. If the Constitution is not ratified, this will prevent any further progress for Europol, the president-in-office of the JHA Council, Luc Frieden, observed during the same interview. The European Police Office would remain an intergovernmental body governed by conventions for which ratification can sometimes take years, instead of being brought under Community scope and made subject to simplified European laws.
Max-Peter Ratzel, responsible at the time for combating organised crime within the German criminal police department (BKA), was appointed at the head of Europol in February this year after over a year of serious division concerning the post which was also eyed with envy by France, Italy and Spain. Mr Ratzel took up his post on 16 April. The inability of the 25 to appoint a director came in addition to the other difficulties experienced by Europol, casting doubt on the Member States' oft-repeated commitment to use the office in a better way and to make it a central tool for police cooperation. “In my capacity as president of the Council on the occasion of this investiture, I called on all Member States to put Europol to greater use”, Luc Frieden told Agence Europe. The Luxembourg minister, who had managed to gain agreement on the director's appointment in February, also stressed the importance of the Europol information system which is being set in place and the future participation of Europol in joint investigation teams.
During the ceremony, Mr Ratzel stressed how important it was for Europol to go from a start-up to a consolidation phase, including with a more operational role. His priorities are to combat counterfeiting of the euro and terrorism but also the setting in place of the Europol information system and participation in joint investigation teams. Mr Ratzel called on the Commission and Council to establish a schema outlining the functions of each body responsible for justice and home affairs, Europol and Eurojust, as well as the European Border Agency, the SitCen situation and OLAF. The new Europol director interprets this as a preliminary “condition” to the functioning of the future internal security committee, as a coordination body included in the European Constitution.
Dutch ministers of justice and home affairs and their German counterpart Otto Schily, who had fought hard for Europol to continue under German management, also attended the Max-Peter Ratzel investiture ceremony on Tuesday in The Hague, as did Jürgen Storbeck, who was the first Europol director from July 1999 to the end of June 2004.