The evolution of police cooperation in the European Union and the exercise of soveriegnty

Abstract

Police cooperation is a sensitive subject as it involves the sovereignty of states and more particularly state's monopoly on the use of force. This fact reflects why police cooperation at the international or European level has in the past been considered a top-secret component of foreign policy and, on the other hand, why it has flourished in so many forms, fields and at different levels within the structure of the European Union. The concept of having a police instrument has always existed in the European Union. But it will not be until 1992 in Maastricht when its institutional birth truly takes place, marking the beginning of a period of interpillar advances. Cooperation has extended to requests for mutual assistance in the exchange of information and arrests, based on a joint working network centered on the establishment of points of contact and thus enabling the creation of joint investigation teams to facilitate prosecution and surveillance between neighboring countries. A co-active and ad hoc cooperative perspective that has led to the creation of common databases and the establishment of mixed national and EU frameworks and hybrid institutions. The existence of police cooperation at Community level plays an indispensable role in the transformation of the European Union into an area of freedom, security and justice based on the respect for fundamental rights. The lack of integration and improvement would rather pose a risk to individual and collective security. Information is nowadays an indispensable value in the performance of police work. The availability of verified, accurate and up-to-date information will result in safer interventions from the point of view of those involved; more effective from the point of view of results; and, more cost-effective in terms of human and material resources. The very evolution that the European Union has undergone in the last decade in general but also in particular with regard to internal security, reflects the need to adapt its procedures to new scenarios, where the challenges are changing. Over the approximately past 35 years, political, legal and operational experiences with regard to information exchange have led to the development of structures and procedures beyond the establishment of bilateral relations, involving the development of information systems through which information of policing enforcement interest circulates. The detection, study and scope of solutions that respect rights and freedoms are fundamental tools in the advancement of humanity. In this binomial of freedom and security, states, as guarantors of the general interest, have the obligation to guarantee stability and coexistence. Police cooperation and policies continue to develop today, aimed at preventing, detecting and investigating criminal offences throughout the European Union. An increasingly complex policy that requires a greater and deeper unification of national and supranational criteria.