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Eurodac is a biometric database in which Member States are required to enter the fingerprint data of asylum-seekers in order to identify where they entered the European Union (EU). Established in 2000 and reviewed in 2013, its main purpose is to facilitate the application of the Dublin Regulation. The 2013 revision of the regulation broadened its scope to provide law enforcement authorities with access to the Eurodac database. As part of the reform of the common European asylum system in 2016, the ...

The global supply of cocaine is at record levels: in just six years (from 2014 to 2020), cocaine production doubled and led to a 416 % increase in the European cocaine market. Almost all cocaine produced comes from the Andean region: With 61 % of total production, Colombia remains the world's biggest cultivator of coca, followed by Peru (26 %) and Bolivia (13 %). Political instability experienced in Andean countries in recent years goes hand in hand with a worsening public security situation and ...

In November 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal to reinforce the role of Europol, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, in the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings. With detections of irregular border crossings at the EU's external borders at their highest levels since 2016 and demand for migration facilitation services following suit, the Commission sees an urgent need to step up the prevention, detection and investigation of these crimes. Europol's ...

In order to modernise the Prüm framework, in 2021 the Commission presented a proposal for a regulation on automated data exchange for police cooperation, which is part of the 'EU police cooperation code' package. During the February I plenary session, the European Parliament is due to vote the final text of this regulation.

This study examines the management of Contract Agents in seven decentralised Agencies of the European Union: ECHA, EEA, EIGE, ENISA, ESMA, Eurofound and Europol. It evaluates the evolution of Contract Agents as part of the workforce, and presents findings on processes related to personnel budgeting, recruitment and retention, salary and remuneration, and advancement prospects for contract staff. This document was prepared by the Policy Department at the request of the Committee on Budgetary Control ...

The EU has made substantial progress in terms of protecting its citizens since the early 1990s. This has often been in response to dramatic incidents, such as murders committed by the mafia or other organised crime groups or big money-laundering scandals, or to negative trends, such as the steep increase in migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings following the 2015 migration crisis. More recently, it was necessary to respond to the sharp rise in cybercrime, fraud and counterfeiting during ...

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 aims principally at rendering Europol's cooperation with private parties more effective; 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 ...

In December 2020, the Commission proposed to amend the Europol Regulation to improve the agency's cooperation with private parties, reinforce its role in research and innovation for law enforcement and remedy the legal gaps in the processing of personal data. During the May I plenary session, Parliament is set to vote on the provisional agreement resulting from interinstitutional negotiations.

Serious and organised crime inflict huge costs on both the EU economy and society. Organised crime is an increasingly dynamic and complex phenomenon, as it has become more interconnected, transnational and digital. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increase in cybercrime, fraud and counterfeiting. Police and judicial actions and the effective implementation of existing EU instruments are critical in tackling this challenge. New strategies to disrupt the business models and structures of criminal ...

Unequivocal support for the European perspective of Western Balkan countries was reiterated by participants at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brdo on 6 October 2021, as well as in the European Commission's October 2021 enlargement package reports. Nevertheless, the Commission insists that all countries in the region need to continue to accelerate and deepen reforms on independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption, and the fight against transnational organised crime. Progress on the ...