Regional Law Enforcement Organisations
Europol
There has been considerable cooperation between national law enforcement organisations in Europe. This has resulted in a regional law enforcement organisation being created. The European Law Enforcement Organisation (Europol) aims at improving the effectiveness and cooperation of the competent authorities in the member states in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking, and other serious forms of organised crime. On 12 November 2001, the European Parliament approved an initiative for a framework extending Europol’s mandate to include environmental crime. The objective to include environmental crime in the mandate was to enhance the effectiveness of co-operation within the scope of the Europol Convention by giving Europol the means to carry out its tasks in relation to all aspects of international organized crime particularly environmental crime.
In further developments in Europe, the Baltic Sea Region Task Force falls under the umbrella of the Helsinki Convention, which entered into force on the 17 January 2002. The contracting parties to the convention include Denmark, Estonia, European Commission, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russian and Sweden. The objectives of the task force are to facilitate trans-national understanding of the incidence of environmental crime in the member states and develop cooperative enforcement structures to combat organised environmental criminals.
On 1 May 2002, the European Commission supported Article 40 of the 1990 Schengen Convention, which will enable cross-border surveillance of friends, family, accomplices and victims of suspects being investigated. The Commission suggested that increasing the opportunities for police officers to continue surveillance operations in other member states who are party to the convention, would represent progress towards developing police co-operation and boosting the success of judicial inquiries.
