New bill will help fight crime across Europe, says McDowell
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has today published the Europol (Amendment) Bill 2006.
The Bill aims to give force of law to three protocols to the Europol Convention which have been drawn up since the enactment of the 1997 Europol Act.
These Protocols extend the competence of Europol to money laundering regardless of the type of offences from which the laundered proceeds originate; clarify the certain powers of Joint Investigation Teams, and streamline the internal working of Europol, particularly in relation to liaison procedures and analysis and processing of data.
“The enactment of this Bill will enable Ireland to ratify these three additional Protocols to the Europol Convention and to continue to fulfil its international obligations,” said McDowell.
“In practical terms this Bill will help to pave the way for enhanced co-operation between law enforcement agencies in all of the EU member states in the fight against all forms of crime with a cross border dimension.”
Europol is the European Union Law Enforcement Organisation which was established to improve the effectiveness and co-operation of the competent authorities in the EU Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and other serious forms of international organised crime.
