Secure Today, Protect Tomorrow: Renew Europe Group outlines way forward for Europol
With criminal networks crossing borders as never before Europol, the agency connecting and supporting national police forces around the EU, needs strengthening. That is the core message of the Renew Europe position paper presented today by MEPs Sophie Wilmès (Mouvement Réformateur, Belgium) and Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle (D66, Netherlands).
The paper comes ahead of a proposal by the European Commission on the new mandate for Europol. The Renew Europe Group wants to scale up Europol’s operational and tactical capacities to match the growing complexity of Europe’s security challenges, and outlines six areas where progress is possible and necessary: Threats: making sure Europol has the competence to act on hybrid threats, like cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, to tackle drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism; Technology: improving the Agency’s use of technology, including AI, in fighting cross-border crime and countering serious harmful online activities; Training: investing in Europol’s human capital and that of national forces, by developing a European Police Academy and promoting cross-border police cooperation projects; Teamwork: boosting Europol’s role as the EU’s centre of excellence for data analysis, and establishing more structured cooperation between the Agency and key EU bodies; Transparency and data: empowering Europol to both access and contribute to EU-level databases, in parallel with improving parliamentary oversight on its workings; and Total resources, addressing the structural under-funding of the Agency in the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
Security is one of the top priorities for European citizens, and rightly so. Feeling protected is a fundamental prerequisite for the exercise of individual freedoms and for safeguarding our liberal democratic model. This is why we at Renew Europe, are fully committed to this issue. As security challenges cannot be addressed with each Member State acting on its own, we call for a strong and coordinated European response. Our position paper aims to significantly strengthen Europol’s analytical, operational, and technological capacities, enabling the agency to keep pace with evolving threats and to respond to a new reality in which crime increasingly transcends physical borders.
Sophie WilmèsRenew Europe MEP, Belgium, Mouvement Réformateur
The world has changed and we need Europol to change with it. When criminals cross borders and threats move from off- to online, so should police cooperation. At the same time, power can never go unchecked. With a stronger mandate, parliamentary oversight should be strengthened as well.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der WalleRenew Europe MEP, Netherlands, Democraten 66