Luxemburg, 18/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Police Office (Europol), which is seen as the embryonic beginnings of a future European police force, will, in 2010, become an EU Agency and have increased powers to act against cross-border crime. EU Interior Ministers, meeting in Luxemburg on Friday 18 April, reached political agreement on a proposal for a Council decision to replace the 1995 convention setting up Europol and extend its mandate. “Europol will become a fully fledged EU body and will have the means to support still more effectively member states' public order agencies. European cooperation will see itself strengthened,” said European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot in a press release published after the Council meeting. Agreement was reached after three countries - Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - finally decided to remove their reservations on the principle of the future Agency's “budgetary neutrality”. The Commission was able to show that member states' contributions would not rise significantly as a result of the Office's change of status. Definitive agreement on the text is likely to come in June, once the final Parliamentary reservations have been allayed. Through this proposal, the Office will become a Community Agency (Community budget, staff statute). The proposal, brought forward by the European Commission in December 2006 received the assent of the European Parliament (EP) in the plenary session in Strasbourg on 18 January (see EUROPE 9583). The EP will also see its powers over the Office increase. Europol is an inter-governmental organisation set up to enhance police cooperation in Europe, in particular through the exchange of information. It works on organised crime and has seen its activities extend over the years: drugs trafficking, illegal immigration networks, human trafficking and child pornography, trafficking in stolen cars, and radioactive and nuclear material, counterfeiting, false credit cards and terrorism. On its becoming a European Agency, Europol will see its area of action widened to include serious cross-border crime, such as the search for a murderer who has fled to another EU country. It will also be able to coordinate, organise and carry out investigations and joint operations with member states' or as part of joint investigating teams, and will be able to call on member states to begin investigations. The reform of Europol, then, will be of great assistance to police officers in their investigations. It will be possible to create specialist databases (relating, for example, to dangerous internet sites) and to add them to current exchange and information systems. The Europol Convention is likely to be replaced by the new decision before 30 June 2008, and the Office will have the status of an Agency from 1 January 2010. (B.C.)