Strengthening Europol’s mandate [EU Legislation in Progress]

Written by Carmen-Cristina Cîrlig (1st edition).

On 9 December 2020, along with its counter-terrorism agenda, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a regulation to reinforce the mandate of Europol, the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. The proposed regulation principally aims at rendering Europol’s cooperation with private parties more effective; at responding to the agency’s ‘big data challenge’, by providing a legal basis for processing large and complex datasets, including personal data of data subjects not related to a crime; and at providing a reinforced role for Europol in relation to research and innovation for law enforcement. The legislative proposal, which would amend the existing Europol Regulation (EU) 2016/794, is also linked to another legislative proposal to modify Regulation (EU) 2018/1862 on the Schengen Information System (SIS), to allow Europol to issue alerts in SIS under a new category.

Discussions in the Council started in January 2021. In the European Parliament, a draft report was discussed in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs at the end of May 2021.

Versions

Strengthening Europol’s mandate (1st edition)

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2016/794, as regards Europol’s cooperation with private parties, the processing of personal data by Europol in support of criminal investigations, and Europol’s role on research and innovation
Committee responsible:	Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)	COM(2020) 796 9.12.2020
Rapporteur:	Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, Spain)	2020/0349(COD)
Shadow rapporteurs:	Franco Roberti (S&D, Italy), Dragoş Tudorache (Renew, Romania), Tom Vandendriessche (ID, Belgium), Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgium), Patryck Jaki (ECR, Poland), Clare Daly (The Left, Ireland)	Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’)
Next steps expected:	Vote in committee on draft report