European Commission
Malmström

With Interpol's Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble

This morning I went to visit Interpol’s headquarter in Lyon. 190 countries are members of Interpol and it has been very interesting to hear how they work. We discussed issues such as organized crime, cybercrime, child abuse etc. In recent years, cooperation between Europol and Interpol has become increasingly better. The cooperation has also led to a couple of operations and arrests of international gangs involved in selling and disseminating images of children being sexually abused . We discussed how we could further develop this cooperation when it comes to for exemple, training of police in new democracies. Tunisia and Libya are exemples of two countries where the Commission is already engaged. A functioning police force, where the police is working for the public service and not the dictatorship, is of course central for a democratic transition.

Interpol is planning to establish a centre in Singapore to coordinate the fight against cybercrime. Within a few weeks’ time, I will present a Commission proposal to establish a European Cybercrime Centre. We of course discussed a future cooperation between the two centres.

My visit coincided with Interpol’s annual conference with responsible national authorities, so there were police officers from nearly 100 countries in Lyon today. I had the opportunity to listen to the conclusions of the conference and to talk about the ongoing activities within the EU and the work with our internal security strategy.

The entire Commission has been in Denmark to meet with the Danish Government and discuss cooperation over the next six months. Yesterday, we were also invited to the official inauguration of the Presidency, which was celebrated with a concert in the new Copenhagen concert hall.  Besides the Commission, the outgoing Council President Donald Tusk, the President of Cyprus (Cyprus takes over July 1st) and the European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek were also present.

The Danish Government takes over at a difficult time and, of course, the priority is to handle the economic crisis. But they also want to focus on growth issues, including green growth. This is extremely important. We will never get Europe back on its feet if we do not concentrate on growth.

We also had time to split into small groups to have some very rewarding discussions. This morning I met with Morten Bödskov, who, as Danish Interior Minister, will be my counterpart for the next six months. We have already met several times. His priorities are the Asylum Package and Schengen, and I look forward to working with him. The visit ended with lunch at Amalienborg with the Danish Queen and Prince.

Today in the Hague, Europol publicised great success in dismantling an amphetamine network operating in countries such as Sweden, Germany and Bulgaria. Thanks to police cooperation across borders, assisted by Europol, nine people have been arrested. Three sites for amphetamine production have been shut down in Bulgaria and weapons, ammunition and explosives have been seized. And more than one hundred kilograms of amphetamines have now been removed from the black market. It’s a great day for our European police cooperation.  For those interested in learning more about amphetamine use in Europe, there is an interesting EU report published before Christmas.

I have many difficult and sensitive issues in my portfolio, but the issue that concerns me the most is the abuse of children. It is so incredibly difficult to understand how people can do that to children. Children who are sexually exploited and filmed or photographed are also exposed to repeated abuse. First when the assault takes place, then a second time as it is filmed, and then each time these images are played the assault is repeated. The children are becoming younger and the assaults all the more repulsive.

Europol has today revealed the details of the latest raids carried out in 22 EU countries to dismantle child sex abuse networks that spread the material over the Internet. Europol coordinated the effort under the name Icarus. 122 people have been arrested and while the investigations are ongoing, they expect to arrest more people. From the political perspective, EU-level work to combat these type of crimes is focused on harmonization of laws and giving the police the tools they need to get the criminals. An important tool that we now have at our disposal is the new Directive against abuse of children. Under the Directive, grooming is now criminalized, child abuse images websites must immediately be closed, sex tourists will not be able to get away just because they commit the crime abroad and the protection of children as victims of crime will be strengthened in all EU countries. We are serious about putting an end to child abuse, and Icarus shows a good example of that. I have also initiated cooperation with the U.S. on this issue.

My day is filled with different meetings in Brussels. I have taken the opportunity to meet with the Russian Minister of Justice who is in Brussels for the EU – Russia summit. We talked about future steps towards visa-free short-term travel for Russian and European citizens, and about our cooperation in the fight organized crime and corruption. I also expressed our concerns about the reports on election fraud, and expressed our hope that President Medvedev really is serious about investigating all allegations. I guess this question will also be an important issue raised at the summit.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has today, together with Europol, presented a new report on amphetamines in Europe. Amphetamine is the second most commonly used drug after cocaine in Europe. Despite this, we know less about amphetamine than about other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. This new report is very interesting reading, giving information on trends, usage and trafficking routes within and to Europe. The report will hopefully contribute to the work of Europol in fighting organized groups who make big money out of drug sales and trafficking. This week Europol, together with the Spanish police, dismantled a gang involved in smuggling of cannabis and counterfeiting. The group had its seat in Spain but was operating in 20 different EU countries. 25 people were arrested on this occasion.

Later this evening it is the Christmas party with the officials in my DG, DG Home. It is a relatively small DG in comparison with other DGs, with just under 300 staff. And they’ve really worked hard this year. We have, in this year alone, presented 58 different proposals - a year in Home Affairs which was characterized by events such as the Arab spring, the crisis in Greece and the terrorist attacks in Norway. In addition, we have had negotiations on the Asylum package, Schengen issues, endless visa negotiations, etc., etc.. The DG really has made a great effort this year and they are all to go off for a well-deserved Christmas break soon.

I am spending the day at Europol, in the Hague.  Europol have several Swedish visitors here today – the County Police and the Director and others from the National Police, and I’ve been invited to speak about what the Commission is doing in the fight against organised crime, and how we can strengthen cooperation.  I think that the police in Sweden, as in all Member States, have much to gain by strengthening cooperation with Europol.

A few hours ago we received the news that Muammar Gadaffi had been arrested, badly injured.  And now he is said to be dead.  He was one of the worst dictators of modern times and it would have been good if he had been put to trial for his horrid crimes.  I hope that the Transitional Council can now concentrate on a peaceful transition, and on building a new, democratic Libya.  But it will not be easy.

2011-07-01 One of the agencies that fall under my portfolio is Europol and today I was given the pleasure to participate in the inauguration of the new headquarters in Hague.

Europol has been operational since 1999, although the idea of tackling international and cross border crime through better cooperation on the EU level is much older. Europol’s achievements of the past years bear testimony to the fact that this agency is regarded as a unique centre of criminal expertise, operating against very high standards of protection of personal data.

I would like to highlight one of the many operations carried out under Europol flag last year: Operation Shovel, involving five different countries. The criminal network had its logistic base in Spain, led by Irish and UK criminals involved in drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering, forgery of public documents and not the least murders. The operation was led by Spanish authorities in close collaboration with the UK, Ireland and Belgium. It was supported by Europol which deployed three mobile offices. Over 700 police officers were involved in numerous Member States during the day of the operation. Surveillance and monitoring were conducted, including border surveillance between the UK and Ireland. As a result, 38 arrests were made; 60 luxury properties on the Spanish “Costa del Sol” were seized, as were and 25 cars. 180 bank accounts were frozen.

Without close, coordinated cooperation across EU internal borders, this criminal network could not have been dismantled.

2011-04-18 Today I held a press conference presenting the evaluation report of the Data Retention Directive. The report is based on the contributions we’ve received from Member States, MEPs and other stakeholders. The report shows that data retention has proven useful in criminal investigations. One example being the case in Hungary and Poland where fraudsters would telephone elderly people pretending to be a relation in need of money and police could only identify the perpetrators through examining data generated by those phone calls.  Or in the case where Europol facilitated an Operation Rescue which targeted an international paedophile network of 70 000 members, uncovering the identities of 670 suspected members and helped protected more than 200 children from further abuse, with the help of this type of data.

The report also points out that there’s room for improvement. Some Member States have a clear, defined limitation of purpose for which traffic data may be retained and used. Others do not. From a data security point of view this is not fulfilling. There are also uncertainties about how the directive should be implemented. This has caused the Supreme Court in Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic to condemn the implementation of the directive.  An EU directive is of course meant to be clear with little room for misinterpretation.

Some Member States require the retention for two years, others only six months. Also in this respect we have to find a better solution. If data retention is to be an effective tool against organised crime and give both telecommunications companies and citizens the legal certainty they deserve the time for retention should probably be further harmonised.

My conclusion is that the Data Retention Directive is useful in fighting crime but that the Directive must be revised and improved. Already in 2006 when I was in the European Parliament I was hesitant to the Directive, but at the same time I realised – and I still acknowledge – the importance and the value of Data Retention to protect people against the harm caused by serious crime. That is also what we can conclude after listening to the experiences from Member States and police authorities in the EU. The consultation process will now continue and I hope to present a proposal for a revised Data Retention Directive at the end of this year.