Europol was set up by Council Decision 2009/371/JHA (2) as an entity of the Union to support and strengthen action by competent authorities of the Member States and their mutual cooperation in preventing and combating organised crime, terrorism and other forms of serious crime affecting two or more Member States. Decision 2009/371/JHA replaced the Convention based on Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, on the establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention).

As serious crime often occurs across internal borders, Europol should support and strengthen Member States' actions and their cooperation in preventing and combating serious crime affecting two or more Member States. Given that terrorism is one of the most significant threats to the security of the Union, Europol should assist Member States in facing common challenges in this regard. As the Union law enforcement agency, Europol should also support and strengthen actions and cooperation in tackling forms of crime that affect the interests of the Union.

Data relating to the persons collected and processed may include only the following categories of personal data:

(a) surname, maiden name, given names and any alias or assumed name;

(b) date and place of birth;

(c) nationality;

(d) sex;

(e) place of residence, profession and whereabouts of the person concerned;

(f) social security numbers, driving licences, identification documents and passport data; and

(g) where necessary, other characteristics likely to assist in identification, including any specific objective physical characteristics not subject to change such as dactyloscopic data and DNA profile (established from the non- coding part of DNA).

Article 45 of the Europol Regulation* provides for the establishment of a Cooperation Board with an advisory function. It shall be composed of a representative of a national supervisory authority of each Member State and of the EDPS.

The Cooperation Board shall have the following main tasks: examining difficulties of interpretation or application of the Europol Regulation; studying general problems relating to the exercise of independent supervision or the exercise of the rights of data subjects; drawing up harmonised proposals for joint solutions; discussing cases submitted by the EDPS and by any national supervisory authority; promoting awareness of data protection rights. In the same time, the Cooperation Board may issue opinions, guidelines, recommendations and best practices.

Data subjects’ rights

According to the data protection principles, the rights of individuals recognized also by the Europol Regulation are as follows: right of access for the data subject (Article 36) and right to rectification, erasure and restriction (Article 37).

Any person shall have the right to request the national supervisory authority to verify the legality of any transfer or communication to Europol of data concerning him or her in any form and of access to those data by the Member State concerned. That right shall be exercised in accordance with the national law of the Member State in which the request is made.