Today, the Commission is proposing an EU Police Cooperation Code to enhance law enforcement cooperation across Member States and give EU police officers more modern tools for information exchange.
With a large part of criminals operating across borders, police officers in the EU must be able to work together quickly and efficiently. The Police Cooperation Code – which includes a Recommendation on operational police cooperation and new rules on information sharing – will help improve cross-border operations, provide clear channels and timeframes for exchanging information and give Europol a stronger role.
In addition, revised rules on automated exchange of certain categories of data will help establish links between crimes across the EU much more effectively.
This will help close information gaps, boost the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal offences in the EU, and foster security for everyone in Europe.
Three legislative proposals
The Police cooperation package includes three legislative proposals:
- Council Recommendation on operational police cooperation, which sets common EU standards for police officers when they cooperate with their colleagues in neighboring countries in joint operations, or when officers of one EU country act in another EU country
- Directive on information exchange between law enforcement authorities of Member States, which introduces common rules on how law enforcement authorities of Member States exchange information
- Regulation on Automated Data Exchange for Police Cooperation (Prüm II), which enables faster exchange of data of special importance for law enforcement and expands the data available from DNA, fingerprints, vehicle registration data now to facial images and police records that are crucial in fighting crime.
More information
- Press release
- MEMO
- Factsheet
- Video on police cooperation
Documents
Details
- Publication date
- 8 December 2021
- Author
- Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs