Council Act of 5 June 2003 amending the Council Act of 3 November 1998 adopting rules on the confidentiality of Europol information
Date: 2003-06-05
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU law, Europol, dissemination of information, professional secret

28.6.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 152/1

(Acts adopted under Title VI of the Treaty on European Union)

COUNCIL ACT

of 5 June 2003

amending the Council Act of 3 November 1998 adopting rules on the confidentiality of Europol
information

(2003/C 152/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

2. The last sentence of Article 8(1) shall be replaced by the

following:

Having regard to the Convention on the establishment of a
and in
European Police Office
particular Article 31(1) thereof,

(Europol Convention) (1),

Having regard to the initiative of the Kingdom of Denmark (2),

‘Information which is subject to the basic protection level
and to which no classification level has been assigned shall
be marked as “Europol Unclassified not for public dissemi-
nation”’;

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (3),

3. Article 8(4) shall be replaced by the following:

Having regard to the draft prepared by the Management Board
of Europol,

Whereas:

The Europol classification levels will be named as

‘4.
follows:

(1) The classification levels to be applied within Europol
should be aligned, with respect to the security measures
to be applied, so that they correspond as far as possible to
the levels currently applied within the institutions of the
European Union and to existing international standards.

“Europol Restricted”: This classification shall be applied to
the unauthorised disclosure of
information and material
which could be disadvantageous
interests of
Europol or of one or more Member States.

to the

(2) It is for the Council, acting unanimously, to adopt appro-
priate rules on the confidentiality of information which is
obtained by, or exchanged with, Europol on the basis of
the Europol Convention,

“Europol Confidential”: This classification shall be applied to
information and material
the unauthorised disclosure of
which could harm the essential interests of Europol or of
one or more Member States.

HAS ADOPTED THIS ACT:

Article 1

The Council Act of 3 November 1998 adopting rules on the
confidentiality of Europol information (4) is hereby amended as
follows:

1. Article 1(g) shall be replaced by the following:

‘(g)

“classification level” means a security marking assigned
to a document processed by or through Europol as
mentioned in Article 8;’

(1) OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p. 2, Convention as last amended by the
Protocol of 28 November 2002 (OJ C 312, 16.12.2002, p. 2).

(2) OJ C 286, 22.11.2002, p. 19.
(3) Opinion of 9 April 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal).
(4) OJ C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 10.

“Europol Secret”: This classification shall be applied only to
the unauthorised disclosure of
information and material
interests of
which could seriously harm the essential
Europol or of one or more Member States.

to information and material

“Europol Top Secret”: This classification shall be applied
the unauthorised
only
disclosure of which could cause
exceptionally grave
prejudice to the essential interests of Europol or of one or
more Member States.

Each Europol classification level shall relate to a specific
to be applied within Europol. The
security package,
security packages shall offer different levels of protection,
depending on the content of the information, and taking
the detrimental effect, which unauthorised
account of
access, dissemination or use of
the information, might
have on the interests of Europol or the Member States.

C 152/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

28.6.2003

When information protectively marked at different levels is
gathered, the classification level to be applied shall be at
least as high as that applicable to the information protected
at the highest level. At all events, a group of information
may be given a higher protection level than that of each of
its parts.

if such information has to be classified, the lowest

that,
possible level should be assigned.’;

6. In Article 11(3) the terms ‘level 1 or 2’ shall be replaced by
‘Europol Restricted level or Europol Confidential level’;

The translation of protectively marked documents shall be
subject to the same protection as the originals.’

7. Throughout the text, the words ‘security level’ or ‘security
levels’ shall be replaced by the words ‘classification level’ or
‘classification levels’ respectively.

4. Article 8(5) shall be replaced by the following:

Article 2

The

security packages

‘5.
consist of various
measures of a technical, organisational or administrative
nature, as laid down in the Security Manual.’;

shall

5. Article 9(2) shall be replaced by the following:

‘2.
In choosing any classification level, Member States
shall take account of the classification of the information
the need for the oper-
under their national regulations,
to function
for
ational
adequately and the requirement that classification of law
information should be the exception and
enforcement

flexibility

required

Europol

This Act shall enter into force on 1 July 2003.

Article 3

This Act shall be published in the Official Journal of the European
Union.

Done at Luxembourg, 5 June 2003.

For the Council

The President

M. CHRISOCHOÏDIS

COUNCIL ACT

of 5 June 2003

amending the Staff Regulations applicable to Europol employees

(2003/C 152/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Whereas:

Having regard to the Convention on the establishment of a
and in
European Police Office
particular Article 30(3) thereof,

(Europol Convention) (1),

Having regard to the initiative of the Kingdom of Denmark (2),

(1) The Staff Regulations applicable to Europol employees, as
laid down in Council Act of 3 December 1998 (4), should
be amended in particular in order to establish special
provisions for Europol officials serving in third countries,
on account of special living conditions there.

(2) It is for the Council, acting unanimously, to lay down
detailed arrangements applicable to Europol employees,

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (3),

HAS ADOPTED THIS ACT:

Having regard to the opinion of the Management Board of
Europol,

Article 1

(1) OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p 2. Convention as last amended by the
Protocol of 28 November 2002 (OJ C 312, 16.12.2002, p. 2).

(2) OJ C 286, 22.11.2002, p. 20.
(3) Opinion of 9 April 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

The Staff Regulations applicable to Europol employees are
amended as follows:

(4) OJ C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 23. Act as last amended by the Council Act

of 19 December 2002 (OJ C 24, 31.1.2003, p. 1).