Schlagwort: JRC

EU Parliament approves: Europol Regulation on the home straight

The EU police agency gets a new legal basis after six years. The expansion of its powers is hardly matched by new possibilities for supervision. A parliamentary control group even proves to be a driver for the expansion of an already powerful agency.

The EU Parliament has voted by a large majority to extend Europol’s powers. The negotiators of the Home Affairs Committee and the Council had agreed on the new regulation in February. With 480 votes in favour, 143 against and 20 abstentions, it was now approved in plenary.

The new text considerably expands the powers of the police agency based in The Hague. As in the investigations into the encrypted messenger services Encrochat and SkyECC, Europol will in future be allowed to receive millions of pieces of data from private companies in order to analyse them. Also in the area of crimes against the sexual self-determination of children, Europol will in future receive large data sets from companies and process them forensically. „EU Parliament approves: Europol Regulation on the home straight“ weiterlesen

Europol steers arms companies for security research

Following the example of the US Department of Defense, Europol should coordinate European security research. In October, the EU interior ministers had decided on an „Innovation Laboratory“ at the Police Agency. Due to potential confusion, the department will now be renamed.

Since 1984, the European Union has organised its civil security research in multi-annual framework programmes, the current programme is called „Horizon 2020“. Arms companies are involved in many of these projects; they are conducting research with institutes and authorities on drone tanks for border control, stopping „non-cooperative vehicles“ with electromagnetic pulses or observing cities and borders by satellite. International agreements enable the involvement of third countries, for example Israel’s largest drone manufacturer has been involved in numerous projects for decades. „Europol steers arms companies for security research“ weiterlesen

Civil and military research: New EU Centre for Cyber Security remains controversial

The European Union wants to increase its „resilience, deterrence and defence“ in the area of cyber security. A new centre will coordinate research and training activities. However, the proposed regulation is not compatible with existing institutions and funding programmes.

The establishment of a European Competence Centre for Cyber Security (ECCC) continues to stagnate. MEPs and Member State governments had defined their positions in March and started negotiations on a regulation. However, an agreement was not reached as planned in the previous legislative period and is not foreseeable with the new EU Parliament.

More than a year ago, the EU Commission presented a regulation establishing an ECCC. It was based on conclusions, in which the Council two years ago called for more „resilience, deterrence and defence“ for cyber security. The ECCC, mentioned there for the first time, is intended to reduce the European Union’s dependence on “ depends on non-European cybersecurity providers“ and bundle efforts in the areas of industry, technology and research. This is intended to ensure the „smooth functioning of the internal market“. „Civil and military research: New EU Centre for Cyber Security remains controversial“ weiterlesen