Brussels, 23/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 20 April In Luxembourg the German minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble, announced on behalf of the presidency, the entry into force of three Europol Conventions that would provide this organisation with increased resources at a level of police cooperation in the Union. Shortly before, the minister officially gave Europol Director Max-Peter Ratzel, the three protocols for amending the Europol Convention. These have now been ratified and have entered into force in all member states. Schäuble indicated that, “With the protocols amending the Europol Convention, Europol has embarked on a new operational phase”. The Commissioner in charge of Security, Franco Frattini affirmed that the entry into force of the three protocols represented, “a very important step towards cross-border efficiency that would help the fight against globalised crime”. The first and the second amending protocols, which date from 2000 and 2002, had already entered into force on 29 March 2007, whereas the third amending protocol (2003) only entered into force on 18 April. Thanks to the first of these protocols, Europol has an expanded mandate that will provide it with competency for fighting all money laundering related crimes. The second protocol enables Europol to take part in joint investigation teams and make requests to member states to open investigations. The entry into force of the third protocol will help improve information management needed in the European Office's analysis work and include third countries in analysis files. The Commission recently put a proposal on the table to replace the Convention with a Council decision, a measure that could help provide Europol with even more powers (EUROPE 9404). (bc)