Europol Drugs Unit plans for new roles
01 March 1995
The work programme for the first half of 1995 of the Europol Drugs Unit says it will: "study and evaluate the strategic and practical implications of the possible extension of the EDU mandate". This comes after three additional roles - smuggling of nuclear material, organised illegal immigration and vehicle theft - were added to its original role of drug trafficking by the European Council meeting of Prime Ministers in Essen in December. The programme says that it needs to: "Upgrade the IT [computer] system to follow the increase in personnel and the possible extension of the mandate (eg: acquire a database application server)". This seems to indicate that it is anticipated that the next "extension" in the EDU's mandate will be to hold personal data - currently explicitly precluded by the Joint Action agreed by the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Brussels on 9 March (see Statewatch, vol 4 no 6). However, UK Home Secretary Michael Howard hinted at this move in February when he said the EDU is not permitted to store personal information because "the rules have not yet been agreed".
The EDU's plans for 1995 also include: establishing encrypted electronic mail links with all National Criminal Intelligence Systems (NCISs) and the EU translation centre in Luxembourg; establishing direct secure access to Liaison Officers to their national criminal databases; finalising the EDU/NCIS handbooks.
The programme of meetings in the EDU HQ in the Hague for the first six months of 1995 includes: 16 March: Heads of NCISs; 3/4 April: Cocaine case officers meeting; 11/12 May: Money laundering conference; 19/20 June: Operational Heads of NCIS meeting; May: Heads of customs investigation services; May/June: Expert meeting on Africa project.
Report on 1994 activities
As its reputation has grown, so have the numbers of requests for information made to the EDU by police forces in the EU has risen from 146 in the first half of 1994 to 449 in the second - a total of 595 for the year. The number of requests made by Germany was up from 16 to 104, Belgium from 5 to 103, France from 49 to 66, the UK from 3 to 62, and Portugal from 3 to 22. The EDU also played an active role in the drafting of the Europol Convention responding to a request from the Working Group on Europol.
The EDU is having to tackle the legal status of the staff it employs directly as it is not a "legal entity" and will have no legal status until the Europol Convention is in place. To get round this the host country, the Netherlands, is to give EDU officers diplomatic status under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This will give EDU personnel "professional immunity from penal, civil and administrative jurisdiction". The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent "notes" to its embassies in the other 14 EU countries to be "exchanged" with the governments.
New Statesman, 17.3.95; EDU/EUROPOL - Working programme January-June 1995, K.4 Committee report to COREPER/Council, ref: 4534/2/95 Rev 2 Restricted EUROPOL 9, 24.2.95; Report on activities of the Europol Drugs Unit between 1 January and 31 December 1994 - First year progress report, Working Party on Europol, ref: 4533/1/95, Rev 1 Restricted EUROPOL 8, 21.2.95; Conclusion of the Group of budgetary experts, 18 and 19 April 1994, Le Havre. Dossier no: 2210-12.