Thread by @StatewatchEU

New report!

Empowering the police, removing protections: the new Europol Regulation

The new #Europol rules massively expand the tasks and powers of the EU’s policing agency whilst reducing external scrutiny and rights protections for individuals.

Key points in a thread:

Europol’s primary role is to act as a ‘hub’ for information processing and exchange between EU member states and other entities.

The new rules thus increase the powers of all police forces and other agencies that cooperate with Europol.

Europol can now process vast quantities of data transferred to it by member states on people who may be entirely innocent and have no link whatsoever to any criminal activity

This legalises a previously-illegal activity for which Europol was admonished by the EDPS.

The agency can now process “investigative data”, which can be received from member states, EU bodies, international organisations and non-EU states).

As long as this data relates to “a specific criminal investigation”, it could cover anyone, anywhere.

Europol now has a role in "research and innovation" projects geared towards big data, machine learning and ‘artificial intelligence’ techniques, for which it can make use of sensitive data such as genetic data or ethnic background.

Europol can now also use data received from non-EU states to enter “information alerts” in the Schengen Information System database and plans are being discussed for it to provide “third-country sourced biometric data” to national police forces.

This increases the likelihood of data obtained in violation of rights being ‘laundered’ in EU policing and third states using Europol to harass political opponents and dissidents.

The current priority states for cooperation? They include Algeria, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco.

The new rules substantially loosen restrictions on international data transfers, allowing the agency’s management board to authorise transfers of personal data to third states and international organisations without a legal agreement in place.

Yet independent external oversight of the agency’s data processing has been substantially reduced.

The threshold for referring new data processing activities to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) for external scrutiny has been raised...

...and if Europol decides that new data processing operations “are particularly urgent and necessary to prevent and combat an immediate threat,” it can simply consult the @EU_EDPS and then start processing data without waiting for a response.

The agency is now required to employ a Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO), but the role clearly lacks independence: the FRO will be appointed by the Management Board “upon a proposal of the Executive Director,” and “shall report directly to the Executive Director”.

There is much more in the report, which you can find here:

statewatch.org/europolregulat…

And the press release: New Europol rules massively expand police powers and reduce rights protections

statewatch.org/news/2022/nove…

Thanks to the financial support of @privacyint and the help of @ChloBemy and @e_blurbs

statewatch.org/publications/r…