Europol Drugs Unit: Ministerial agreement
01 January 1991
Europol Drugs Unit: Ministerial agreement
actdoc September=1993
MINISTERIAL AGREEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE EUROPOL DRUGS UNIT
Signed in Copenhagen on 2 June 1993
The TREVI Ministers
Considering that the European Council at its meeting in Luxembourg on 28 and 29 June 1991 noted
proposals for the establishment of a central European criminal intelligence office (Europol), agreed
on the objectives underlying these proposals and instructed that they be examined further;
Considering that the TREVI Ministers submitted to the European Council on 4 December 1991 a report
concerning the development of Europol with the unanimous agreement that Europol should be
established, beginning with a drugs intelligence unit, and thereafter developed in the near future;
Considering that the European Council at its meeting in Maastricht on 9 and 10 December 1991 agreed
on the creation of a European Police Office (Europol), the initial function of which would be to
organise the exchange of information on narcotic drugs at the level of the Community's twelve Member
States and instructed the TREVI Ministers to take such measures as were needed to allow it to be
set up at an early date;
Considering that the European Council at its meeting in Lisbon on 26 and 27 June 1992 called for
the preparation of the Convention necessary for the establishment of Europol;
Considering that the preparation and subsequent entry into force of the Convention will take some
time;
Considering the urgent problems posed by international illicit drug trafficking, associated money
laundering and organised crime and the Ministers' call, at their special meeting on 18 September
1992, that Europol's first phase, the Europol Drugs Unit be in place by January 1993;
Considering it necessary to organise the establishment of a Europol Drugs Unit and to have a form
of cooperation in advance of a full Convention on Europol coming into force;
Have decided as follows :
The Ministers of each Member State will send one or more liaison officers to a central location
on or after 1 July 1993 in order to constitute with the liaison officers of the other Member States
a cooperation team to be known as the Europol Drugs Unit.
The Unit is to act as a non-operational team for the exchange and analysis of intelligence in
relation to illicit drug trafficking, the criminal organisations involved and associated money
laundering activities affecting two or more Member States.
The objective of the Unit will be to aid effective action by the police and other law
enforcement agencies within and between Member states, against the above mentioned criminal
activities.
For this purpose, participants in the Unit will perform, each of them acting in accordance with
the provisions of their national laws and any instructions given by or on behalf of their competent
ministers, the following tasks:
(a) to exchange information (including personal information) between Member States in
furtherance of specific criminal investigations of drug-related offences;
(b) to prepare general situation reports and crime analyses on the basis of non-personal
information supplied by Member States and from other sources.
The activities of the Unit will be without prejudice to other forms of bilateral and
multilateral cooperation in relation to combatting illicit drug trafficking and other related
activities, nor to the competences of the European Community.
Treatment of Information
Concerning illicit drug trafficking and other drug-related criminality including money
laundering, the liaison officers will, within the limits of national legislation, legal rules
and any instructions given by or on behalf of their competent ministers, communicate information
in furtherance of specific criminal investigations of drug-related offences, the development of
intelligence as well as strate