Henri Kox, Luxembourg's Minister of Internal Security;
Credit: MSI
Luxembourg's Minister of Internal Security, Henri Kox, participated yesterday in a virtual meeting of the ministers responsible for home affairs on the role of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).
Europol supports EU Member States in the fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime. This December, the European Commission intends to present a legislative proposal for an overhaul of Europol's legal basis. This discussion, initiated by the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, around the current mandate of the agency and the possibilities to strengthen or even extend its missions served as an opportunity for Member States to share their views on the subject ahead of this presentation.
Member States mostly agreed on the fact that the announced overhaul should enable the agency to strengthen its role as a nerve centre in the area of information exchange as well as in the field of new technologies in order to consolidate its support for Member States.
In this context, Minister Henri Kox stressed that Europol should play a crucial role in data processing and analysis while emphasising data quality, the principle of transparency and data protection for the use of new technologies. According to the Member States, the Europol innovation platform should contribute to this technological development.
