Bulgaria’s capital Sofia hosted a sitting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on the functioning of Europol. The event was part of the calendar of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Europol’s Executive Director Rob Wainwright, the Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament Claude Moraes, the EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel and the EU Commissioner for Security Julian King attended the event. The development of the European Union’s law enforcement agency goes through higher financing, it became clear at the forum. On the other hand, a series of successful operations have been held by Europol and the exchange of information within the structure itself increased nine times. The participants at the meeting agreed that even after Brexit, Great Britain must remain among the main intelligencers of the EU, because it has one of the most reliable security systems. The EU Commissioner for Security Julian King pointed out that the cooperation between Great Britain and the EU after Brexit will be in the focus during the discussions related to security and defense. According to Europol’s Executive Director Rob Wainwright, cyber security and the fight against organized crime and terrorism will be among Europol’s top priorities in the future. Unfortunately, Europol has not yet signed an agreement which would allow exchange of operational information with Turkey and this is the biggest problem related to exchange of data with non-EU partners, Rob Wainwright added. Such agreement would allow the exchange of operational information with Bulgaria’s southern neighbor and facilitate the detention of indictees who are hiding in non-EU countries. 30,000 people in Europe are potentially part of terrorist communities and Bulgaria and all European counties are threatened by terrorism, Europol’s Executive Director Rob Wainwright went on to say. 800 of them live in the Western Balkans, the Chairman of Bulgaria’s National Assembly Committee on Internal Security and Public Order Tsvetan Tsvetanov said and added that this region is in the heart of the European Union and must not remain outside the EU, because it would fall into foreign spheres of influence.

EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel also voiced support towards Europol:

“Through the establishment of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on the functioning of Europol we show clearly that the National Assemblies of the EU member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission are making join efforts to boost the capacity of Europol and emphasize its role in combating terrorism and cyberattacks which know no boundaries. Speaking of digitalization and new technologies, the European Commission intends to make the EU citizens feel safe both offline and online. We have had a very useful cooperation with Europol with regard to combating illegal content. A total of 42,066 contents were rated until the end of 2017. Following the necessary analyses, a total of 40,714 signals were sent to the competent authorities. Over 80 platforms in more than ten languages were covered. The European Commission published a recommendation on the measures to effectively tackle illegal content, accentuating on enhanced cooperation with the police and the judicial authorities.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov