📋 Tender Overview
Member of the Committee on Internal Policy and National Security Josip ari participated in the 9th meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Oversight Group JPSG of the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Law Enforcement Bodies Europol.The two-day meeting was held by videoconference on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels as part of the parliamentary dimension of Slovenias presidency of the Council of the European Union.The meeting was opened by the co-chairs the head of the European Parliament delegation to JPSG Juan Fernando Lpez Aguilar the head of the Slovenian National Assembly delegation Nik Prebil and the head of the Slovenian National Council delegation Bojana Potoan announcing the meetings agenda. During the central part of the meeting Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle briefed JPSG on the Agencys activities from March to September 2021. She also presented the progress in the implementation of the Europol Strategy for the period 2020 and said that five new specialized centers of the Agency had been established within the Strategy. Speaking about the implementation of Europols External Relations Strategy De Bolle emphasized the working agreements that Europol had concluded with Chile the European Public Prosecutors Office EPPO and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA.The European Data Protection Supervisor EDPS Wojciech Wiewirowski emphasized that the role of the EDPS is to monitor the compliance of Europols data processing procedures with the current EU legislative framework. He also said that due to the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic the first physical surveillance at Europol was carried out in September 2021. Regarding the issue of processing large and complex data sets Wiewirowski expressed satisfaction with the Europol action plan from March 2021 which contains measures to reduce risks to data subjects and the implementation of which as he pointed out will be continuously monitored by EDPS. Wiewirowski also announced the development of final guidelines for Europol on the use of artificial intelligence.European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson expressed satisfaction with the progress made in the process of revising the Europol Regulation and announced the start of trialogue negotiations on this Commission proposal. The Commissioner highlighted the strengthening of Europols mandate as a central objective of the audit by enabling the Agency to cooperate directly with private parties strengthening Europols role in research and innovation including the use of artificial intelligence and enabling Europol to submit proposals for launching criminal investigations and direct access to the Schengen Information System. Referring to the topic of cybercrime and sexual abuse of children on the Internet Johansson pointed out that the amount of online material related to child sexual abuse is worrying and is measured in terabytes so she announced the establishment of a specialized European center for combating child sexual abuse. With regard to financial and economic crime the commissioner announced the adoption of a new legislative framework for the confiscation of property gains next year.Following the presentation of Commissioner Johansson Slovenian Minister of the Interior Ale Hojs welcomed the revision of the Europol Regulation and expressed the expectation that the trialogue negotiations would be completed by the end of 2021. He emphasized that Europol must be able to process large data sets in order to effectively provide support to the competent authorities of the EU Member States. Presentations on cybercrime with a focus on child sexual abuse and co-operation with third countries including private parties and NGOs were given by representatives of Europol the European Commission and Slovenian authorities. The discussion highlighted the achievements of the European Cybercrime Center EC3 and pointed out the need for more effective work on identifying victims to prevent their further victimization with regard to materials depicting child sexual abuse. The need to provide a solid legal basis that will facilitate the work of law enforcement agencies in monitoring and investigating cyberspace and support cooperation with Internet service providers was pointed out.
