NEW POWERS FOR EUROPOL
On 4 May, the European Parliament’s plenary approved the deal reached between Parliament and Council negotiators in February on a renewed mandate for Europol, granting the EU police agency new powers.
Under the new mandate, Europol will be able to pursue research and innovation projects, process large datasets, and help national authorities screen foreign direct investment in security-related cases. When dealing with terrorist content or child sexual abuse material, Europol will be able to receive data from private companies, for example communication services. The legal text now needs to be formally adopted by the Council, before it is published in the EU’s official journal and enters into force.
CLECAT welcomes the renewed mandate and continues to call on EU Member States to extend the mandate of Europol to address cargo crime, by monitoring and mapping cargo crime as a separate offence throughout the EU Member States. Such a dedicated reporting and monitoring mechanism would significantly support the efforts of the industry to counter cargo-crime by offering improved insights into cross-border crimes and the modus operandi applied.
Source: European Parliament