Police cooperation activities will be directed to realizing the
objectives decided upon by the Action Plan of the Hague Program
adopted in December 2004, intended to strengthen freedom, security,
and justice in the European Union. The joint action of prevention
and repression of crime will continue to be centered on the activities
of support, coordination and analysis by Europol (the European
Police Office), as well as on the development of its capabilities
of launching specific investigations and of participating, with
its own agents, in Member States’ joint investigative teams.
Collaboration between national police services will see a further
evolution, due to the adoption of legislative measures improving
the exchange of information. The so-called “availability
principle” will be carried out; this will guarantee the
free circulation of information between police authorities, as
well as reciprocal access to the respective data banks. The effective
collaboration at a crossborder level will also have new impulse,
due to new dispositions which will sharpen cooperation instruments
such as crossborder pursuits and observations.
On a strategic level, although maintaining a high level of investigative
attention towards phenomena connected with organized crime and
its illegal traffics (foremost among these the trafficking in
human beings and in drugs), special attention will also be given
to terrorism. In this regard, efforts will be concentrated on
the realization of joint operative measures, as foreseen by the
EU Action Plan for the fight against terrorism. The Plan is approved
and kept up to date by the Justice and Home Affairs Council, following
the Madrid and London attacks.
After the definitive coming into effect of the Europol Information
System, the common information wealth of the European Police Forces
will be further strengthened thanks to the launching of the second
generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It will be capable
of containing a greater volume of integrated data and of exercising
new functions, such as the conservation and the exchange of fingerprints.
