EUROPOL ANNUAL REPORT 1999
(21175)
7728/00
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Europol Annual Report 1999.
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| Legal base:
| — |
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| Department: |
Home Office |
| Basis of consideration:
| Minister's letter of 19 May 2000
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| Previous Committee Report:
| HC 23-xvi (1999-2000), paragraph 2 (10 May 2000)
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| To be discussed in Council:
| 29-30 May 2000
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| Committee's assessment:
| Politically important
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| Committee's decision:
| Cleared |
Background
15.1 When we considered this document two
weeks ago, we did not feel that we had enough information from
the Government to clear it. We asked the Minister of State at
the Home Office (Mrs Barbara Roche) to highlight significant aspects
of the report and to give us the Government's view of the progress
made by Europol during 1999. We also asked for an explanation
of one of the concluding points in the report.
The Minister's letter
15.2 The Minister has now written to us.
She apologises for not providing sufficient information in her
earlier EM before addressing our requests. She says:
"On the Committee's
first point, Europol's annual report for 1999 is briefly summarised
below under its principal section headings. The summary highlights
a number of the significant points made in the report.
— Intelligence and Specialised Knowledge
"This section deals with the sort of information
handled by Europol, what that information is used for and in what
forms it is used, i.e. reports, bulletins, and databases. The
section is sub-divided into the areas within Europol's mandate.
The section notes that:
- drug related criminality was the main focus of
attention : 58 per cent of the total number of enquiries dealt
with by the Europol Information Exchange System related to drugs
(paragraph 4.2 of the report);
- the involvement of organised crime in illegal
immigration is as widespread as the phenomenon itself; co-ordinated
actions in the Member States, supported by Europol, against the
involved networks led to several arrests and convictions by the
Member States' authorities (paragraph 4.3);
- trafficking in human beings is increasing: Member
States were offered support by Europol in three different cases
of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, including valuable
analytical support (paragraph 4.4);
- the emphasis of Europol's activities in relation
to stolen motor vehicles was on organised illicit trafficking
of vehicles to central and eastern Europe; as stolen cars are
registered in another country as second hand vehicles, Europol
started a second hand car project, and supported two operations
involving, for the first time, two candidate countries (Hungary
and Lithuania) (paragraph 4.6);
- although Europol set aside resources to provide
expertise on request to support criminal investigations in the
area of money laundering, no such requests were received (paragraph
4.7.1).
— Intelligence Analysis
"This section describes
what Europol does with the information it receives and how this
is used to support Member States' investigations. The section
describes the Analytical Work File system. The section notes that:
- the process for the opening of Analytical Work
Files, which are aimed at long term operational analyses involving
two or more Member States, seemed in general to be bureaucratic
and time-consuming; in addition, the transmission of relevant
data and information from the Member States to Europol was very
slow (paragraph 5.1.1 a).
"This section indicates
how much information was exchanged between Member States and Europol
for the purposes of supporting Member States' investigations;
and refers to co-operation between Europol and third states and
non-European Union international organisations. The section notes
that:
- there was a decrease in the number of enquiries
initiated by the Member States using Europol channels (2,180 in
1999 compared with 2,298 in 1998), but the cases were more complex
than previously, possibly reflecting an increased awareness among
law enforcement agencies of appropriate ways of using Europol's
services; there was consequently a need to increase the amount
of analytical assistance (paragraph 6.1.1);
- preparations were made for the commencement of
negotiations on co-operation agreements with third States (paragraphs
1 and 6.2).
— Information and
Communications Technology (ICT)
"This section concentrates on how Europol supports
Member States through the development of technology; the 1999
ICT work programme included eight topics, such as encrypted telecommunication
links with the Member States. The section notes the considerable
progress made with the programme.
— General Administration
"This section deals with issues such as personnel,
training and finance. Annex III of EUROPOL 10 gives details of
recruitment to Europol posts in 1999 and the origin by country
of Europol personnel in post at the end of that year. Of the 169
persons in post, excluding 43 Europol Liaison Officers, 15 were
from the United Kingdom. The section notes that:
- Europol assisted in providing training for Member
States' practitioners, including assisting with the organisation
of a European Union training course for trainers on the combating
of illicit synthetic drugs laboratories (paragraph 8.1.2).
— Directorate Support
"This section describes Europol's own internal
support arrangements, including the work of the legal affairs
and public relations units. The section notes that:
- a data protection policy was elaborated, and
work started on creating rules on public access to Europol documents
(paragraph 9.2)
"On the Committee's
second point, the Government welcomes this annual report, which
gives a comprehensive account of the wide range of Europol's activities
in 1999, the year it was established. But at this early stage
in the life of this new body it is not possible to assess fully
Europol's effectiveness in supporting the Member States in the
fight against organised crime. Nor is it yet clear how far the
Member States' enforcement agencies are aware of Europol's functions
and the support services that it can provide, although our view
is that within UK enforcement agencies, the work of Europol is
becoming fairly widely known. The Government expects that the
Europol Management Board will carefully monitor Europol's further
progress to ensure that, in supporting Member States' own investigations
in areas covered by Europol's mandate, Europol provides real added
value, expeditiously and cost effectively within its budgetary
provision.
"As far as the Committee's question about the
meaning of the final point in the Conclusion of the annual report
is concerned, the Government takes the view that there is nothing
in the report to suggest that Europol should be given operational
powers. In the context of the report, the phrase 'gradually steer
the work from strategic to operational related activity' relates
to Member States' ability to conduct operations more effectively
on the basis of Europol's intelligence and other support services,
including training. As you know, the Tampere European Council
concluded that work should be taken forward quickly to extend
Europol's mandate as envisaged in Article 30(2) of the Treaty
of Amsterdam and we support this. But it remains the Government's
position that to give Europol the sort of operational powers which
police forces in this country have is neither necessary nor desirable."
Conclusion
15.3 We thank the Minister for her letter.
We have quoted it at length, partly because it is in such marked
contrast to the earlier EM, but mostly because it gives such a
good overview of Europol's activities, on the basis of which we
have been able to scrutinise the report properly. The explanation
of the final point in the Conclusion is reassuring. We now clear
the document.
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