Europol Counter-Terrorism Working Group
Photo credit: Roel Wijnants, “Europol,” CC BY-NC 2.0.
Europol Counter-Terrorism Working Group
Summary
Europol is the law enforcement agency of the European Union and assists EU Member States’ efforts to combat serious international crime and terrorism. Europol’s goals include functioning as the main European Union support center for law enforcement operations, becoming the European Union criminal information hub, and further developing as a center for EU law enforcement expertise. Europol’s counterterrorism mandate includes the authority to request member states’ police forces to initiate investigations and cooperate through information exchange with the FBI, Interpol, and other third parties. Europol creates and maintains terrorist analysis work files from member states’ information and intelligence. Europol operates as a regional platform for multilateral exchange and analysis of personal data in the context of terrorism investigations via secure network. Europol additionally creates threat assessments, including targets and security consequences.
Members
Members of Europol include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Website
Entry drafted by PILAC Research Assistant Claire DiMario. Entry last updated: February 2015.