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EU: Statewatch analysis: Europol - The final step in the creation of an "Investigative and Operational" European Police Force

01 January 2007

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Analysis by Professor Steve Peers, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex (pdf). Among its conclusion are:

"replacing the Europol Convention by a Council Decision will reduce the power of national parliaments to control the development of Europol, and furthermore will accelerate the pace of the development of Europol's powers and competence"

"it would be open to Europol, for instance, to create a database of supposed violent demonstrators, in order to exercise its public order tasks"

"the need to prepare Europol for involvement in implementation of the 'principle of availability', ie uncontrolled access by national police forces to all of the data in each others' databases"

"What new safeguards are proposed to ensure the accountability of these new 'operational and investigatory powers'? None"

"With this proposal, Europol comes much closer to becoming a form of federal police force, and indeed Europol's development has consciously paralleled that of the German federal police agencies. But the development of Europol's accountability is not remotely comparable to that of a national police force - even assuming that a federal Europol force could compare to national police forces and regards its efficiency or legitimacy"

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