Debate: Strengthening Europol’s mandate: cooperation with private parties, processing of personal data, and support for research and innovation
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

Since the Commission proposed Europol’s new mandate, the unthinkable happened. We did not expect war crimes committed in Europe. The Ukrainian prosecutor-general identifies thousands of suspected Russian war crimes – looting, murder, torture and rape.  A joint investigation team will collect evidence. Europol is ready to support a joint investigation team and work with Eurojust when needed and when requested. We did also not expect millions of Ukrainian refugees coming into the EU. Millions of women and children exposed to the danger of trafficking.  To fight this threat, Europol has set up a special task force to fight trafficking in human beings. Its new mandate will help Europol to step up the fight against these new threats, against all threats and against potential threats. Europol can help to organise a law enforcement response to major cross-border cyber attacks and help to prevent infiltration by foreign fighters.  The compromise you found allows Europol to propose to Member States to issue alerts on suspected terrorists into the Schengen database. What we did expect when we put forward Europol’s new mandate was the need to fight crime in a digital age.  In a digital age, the clues to solving crimes are in the cloud, clues that can save lives and stop criminals, terrorists or child abusers, on services in data centres, often across national borders.  Europol will soon be able to get data directly from private companies and analyse it to identify which Member States should open an investigation.  The political agreement that you reached is very important. It makes sure Europol can continue to process large volume of data. That’s one of the main reasons I proposed to boost Europol’s mandate in the first place. Europol must have legal clarity because processing big data is key to solving almost all serious organised crimes.  Just one example. In October 2017, a Maltese journalist was murdered when a bomb went off in her car. Daphne Caruana Galizia, honoured by you, by this House, by the European Parliament, with a special prize for journalists awarded in her name. Europol supported the investigation, helping to compare data from telecom masts with billing information, with the suspects’ smartphones, laptops and storage devices.  These proceedings have taken years and are not yet over. One killer has been convicted. Other suspects are still in custody. And that’s why it’s important that the new mandate makes clear there is no doubt Europol can analyse and store information while an investigation continues, while national authorities are authorised to use the data. This is Europol’s core task, to support national law enforcement in their investigations.  If processing big data is key to fighting crime, artificial intelligence is the only way to analyse big data. In the Encrochat case alone, French and Dutch police captured 120 million text messages.  Europol has 536 people working in its operational department. They can’t process that without technology. That’s more than 200 000 messages each. And the clock is ticking. Delays cost lives. So Europol built an artificial intelligence tool to support the Encrochat investigation, to look for key words hinting at violence and murder in different languages, even in slang, allowing police to investigate these crimes and to stop murders from happening.  With its new mandate, Europol can greatly step up on research with a stronger role in advising on priorities of the EU security research agenda and an increased research staff – almost ten-fold to 33 – and with budget for innovation projects increased to EUR 45 million and with a strong legal basis to develop IT tools of artificial intelligence, not only limited to specific operations like Encrochat, but also to develop general law enforcement tools, for example, tools to fight child sexual abuse more effectively.  Europol must keep on file all information on IT tools and algorithm for defence lawyers to access if needed. This is unique in the world, a model of transparent and responsible law enforcement innovation. A stronger mandate for Europol comes with stronger safeguards. A reinforced data protection network, a new fundamental rights officer – that was a strong wish of the European Parliament – and greater powers for oversight for the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol.  Protecting security and upholding fundamental rights go hand in hand. Values are at the heart of the new mandate. Europol will soon be able to propose Member States to investigate crimes without a cross-border element, crimes that don’t cross national borders but do violate other boundaries – our common Union interests and our fundamental values.  Now we need to take the next step to get a new mandate fully operational. When you vote on this mandate tomorrow, it will be a bad day for criminals and a good day for Europol. Thank you for your support, for your excellent work on this important proposal.