EU: What happened to the Trevi network?
01 May 1996
When the Maastricht Treaty came into effect on 1 November 1993 the Trevi group (terrorism, policing and customs) founded in 1976 and the Ad Hoc Group on Immigration started in 1988 were replaced by the new EU Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, the K4 Committee, three Steering Groups and their Working Parties. The counter-terrorism work of Trevi Working Group 1 continued as a Working Party under Steering Group II. However, during the discussions on the planned remit of Europol under the new Convention the operational side of EU counter-terrorism is not be considered until at least two years after the Convention comes into effect - which will be into the next century. This begged the question of what happened to the EU-wide Police Working Group on Terrorism (PWGOT) comprised of the then 12 EU states plus Finland, Norway and Sweden set up in 1979? The answer is that it is still operating outside of any accountability to the Council of Ministers.
The European Liaison Section (ELS) of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch was set up in 1976 to liaise with their counterparts in other EU states. In 1977 the Trevi Net was set up to provide secure a e-mail and fax communications system. At this point the role of the ELS was formalised and given its "own independent national responsibility for the coordination of links on the police net." The official Trevi Central Liaison Office in the UK is based at, and staffed by, MI5. The ELS works in collaboration with MI5 in its dealing with Europe - though when it comes to who is in charge MI5 always takes the lead.
1988 saw the first of a series of bilateral exchanges of liaison officers between the UK and France under an agreement signed on 19 May 1988. On 1 April 1992 the success of this experiment was formalised with the posting of "counter-terrorism liaison officers" (CTLOs) being posted from the UK to France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. The CTLOs were funded as a common police service and comes under a committee comprised of representatives from the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. Detective Chief Inspector John Franks, writing in Policing Today says: "In practice, each CTLO enjoys a degree of autonomy rare in a disciplined service."
The CTLOs are strictly "non-operational" providing information and advice and are in "regular and frequent" contact with internal security services in the countries where they are posted. CTLOs do not work out of UK embassies which is the usual location of liaison officers but in the national police headquarters. Counter-terrorism work these days also covers it appears "animal rights extremism" and "skinhead" activity by racist groups. Since the end of the Cold War internal security agencies across Europe have become involved in combating organised crime as well as counter-terrorism. CTLOs too have taken this "natural step" and deal with organised crime as well.
It is unlikely that Europol, when it is finally operational in the years to come, will ever replaced the informal and unaccountable groups, arrangements, exchange of liaison officers which has been built up over the last 20 years.
"Euro Enthusiast", by DCI John Franks in Policing Today, vol 2 no 1, April 1996.<