Europol ‘mobile office’ at the opening of the ECB

13.5.2015

Question for written answer E-007668-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL)

According to document 18/4820 of the German Bundestag, a ‘mobile office’ of the law enforcement agency Europol was deployed in March 2015 during the protests by the Blockupy alliance at the opening of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. The document states that this was arranged by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, following a request for assistance by the State Criminal Police Office of Hesse. However, in the past, such ‘mobile offices’ have only been used in relation to organised crime.

1. Does the Commission know why, and giving what reasons, the Europol ‘mobile office’ was requested by the German Federal Criminal Police Office for deployment during the Blockupy protests in Frankfurt, and to what extent it was eventually made available?

2. What explanatory information can the Commission give in relation to the actual or planned services provided by the law enforcement agency? Can it state, for example, what requests from the relevant Europol databases were or were intended to be made, what information was provided or sought from these data banks, and what analyses Europol carried out?

3. To what extent is it compatible with the statutes of Europol for a Europol ‘mobile office’ to be made available outside the sphere of ‘organised crime’, and in particular for the management of European crisis protests?