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EUROPOL, MISSION, AND COMPETENCE

EUROPOL is a European Union law enforcement agency that works with criminal intelligence information. Its aim is to improve cooperation between competent authorities of the Member States in preventing and combating organized and serious crime and terrorism. According to its mandate, EUROPOL supports law enforcement activities of the Member States, mainly in the areas of:

Terrorism
Cybercrime
Illegal drug trafficking
Illegal migration
Human trafficking
Counterfeiting of money (counterfeiting of the euro) and other means of payment.

Other main priorities of EUROPOL include property and financial crime, tax fraud, money laundering, cigarette smuggling, especially when organized criminal structures are involved and when two or more countries are implicated.

According to the services it offers, EUROPOL is:
• a support center for law enforcement
• an information center for criminal activities
• an expertise center for law enforcement.

EUROPOL has the following main tasks:

(a) collecting, storing, processing, analyzing, and exchanging data and intelligence information;

(b) delivering notifications to the competent authorities of the Member States about information relevant to them and all discovered links between criminal offenses;

(d) calling on the competent authorities of the involved Member States to start, conduct, or coordinate investigations and proposing the establishment of joint investigation teams in special cases;

(e) providing intelligence and analytical support to Member States in relation to major international cases;

(f) preparing threat assessments, strategic analyses, and reports on general situations related to its purpose, including threat assessments from organized crime.

EUROPOL has the following additional tasks:

(a) developing specialized knowledge of investigative procedures of the competent authorities of the Member States and providing advice for investigations;

(b) providing strategic intelligence to assist and promote the efficient and effective use of resources available at the national and EU level for operational activities and support of these activities;

(c) assisting Member States through support, advice, and research by conducting training for members of their competent authorities, organizing and equipping these authorities through assistance in providing technical support among Member States; informing about crime prevention methods and technical and forensic methods, analysis, and investigative procedures.

Since 2005, EUROPOL has had the role of the Central Office for combating counterfeiting of the euro.

Analysis is the essence of EUROPOL's activities. About 100 criminal analysts, among the best-trained in Europe, use state-of-the-art tools to support investigations by law enforcement authorities in the Member States on a daily basis. To provide deeper insights into crime, EUROPOL produces regular assessments offering comprehensive, progressive analyses of crime and terrorism in the EU, including:

Threat Assessment of Organized Serious Crime in the EU (SOCTA), which identifies and evaluates new threats and describes the structure of organized criminal groups (OCGs) and how they operate, as well as the main types of crime affecting the EU;

Report on the Situation and Trend of Terrorism in the EU (TE-SAT), which provides a detailed report on the terrorism situation in the EU;

Assessment of the Situation in the Field of Cybercrime - Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (iOCTA), covering threats and developments in cybercrime;

Annual Review of EUROPOL, which outlines the results and specific information on the types of functions and systems available to EUROPOL, in the form of coordinated support for police operations throughout Europe, and sometimes beyond.

Through these reports and other means, EUROPOL serves as the EU’s expert center, providing a central platform for law enforcement experts from Member States. To ensure an effective and coordinated response, EUROPOL forms a large number of specialized bodies and commissioned systems. These bodies are:

EUROPOL Operational Centre, a 24/7 data exchange center between EUROPOL, EU Member States, and third parties;
European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), aimed at strengthening the law enforcement response against cybercrime in the EU and thus helping to protect European citizens, businesses, and governments from internet crime;
Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), which leads intelligence-led, coordinated action against key cybercrime threats and top targets by stimulating and facilitating joint identification, prioritization, preparation, and initiation of investigations;
European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC), an operational and expertise center, which is a central part of the EU’s efforts to improve its response to terrorism;
European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC), which supports EU Member States in targeting and dismantling complex and sophisticated criminal networks involved in migrant smuggling;
Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC3), which is central to the EU’s efforts to prevent intellectual property crime within and outside the EU.
- European Financial and Economic Crime Centre – EFECC is an initiative of Europol in the fight against economic and financial crime. It is an operational platform supporting Member States in ongoing cases in the areas of tax crime, fraud, corruption, money laundering, asset recovery, euro counterfeiting, and intellectual property crime. This centre was established in June 2020 to provide EU Member States with a European platform for the integration and analysis of data on economic and financial crime.

The specialized systems, which offer fast and secure capabilities for storing, searching, visualizing, and linking information, constitute a sophisticated tool for fighting crime, including:

FIU.net, a decentralized and sophisticated computer network that supports Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) in the EU in combating money laundering and terrorist financing;
Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA), a state-of-the-art platform that meets the communication needs of EU law enforcement;
Europol Platform for Experts (EPE), a secure, shared web platform for specialists working in different police fields;
European Criminal Records Information System, a reference system for offenses, persons involved, and related data.

Besides cooperation with EU Member States, Europol also cooperates with other external partners (countries or institutions) with which it signs Strategic, Operational, or Working Cooperation Agreements. Through strategic agreements, the exchange of strategic or technical information is enabled, while operational cooperation agreements also allow for the exchange of personal and classified data related to persons involved in criminal activities within Europol’s mandate.

Each Member State, in addition to the Europol Liaison Bureau (ELB) at Europol’s headquarters, staffed with Liaison Officers, has appointed a Europol National Unit (ENU) in their own country. The National Unit is the sole link between Europol and the competent national authorities. The same principles and responsibilities applied to the National Units of the Member States also apply equally to Units established in any third country as a contact point with Europol for information exchange within a cooperation agreement. These Units are called National Contact Points.

REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA AND EUROPOL

The cooperation between North Macedonia and the European Police Office – EUROPOL started back in 2007, at the level of contractual relations for the exchange of strategic and technical information. Specifically, the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between North Macedonia and EUROPOL was signed on January 16, 2007 (Official Gazette of RNM 17/08). To implement the Strategic Agreement and create conditions to start negotiations for signing an Operational Cooperation Agreement with EUROPOL, which would enable operational cooperation and exchange of personal data, an Action Plan was prepared in 2008 for the implementation of the Strategic Agreement and to begin negotiations for signing the Operational Agreement with EUROPOL.

The Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategic Agreement and the start of negotiations for signing the Operational Agreement with EUROPOL was adopted at the 133rd session of the Government of North Macedonia, held on February 25, 2008. During 2008, all the planned priorities were fully realized, including:

Legal status – An EUROPOL Unit was established as the sole contact point for exchanging information between EUROPOL and the competent authorities of North Macedonia. Amendments were made to the bylaws regarding job classification and the organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (May 2008);
Defined relations of the National EUROPOL Unit with the national authorities – Annexes to cooperation protocols were prepared and signed with the Customs Administration and the Financial Police Administration on one side, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the other side, regarding cooperation with EUROPOL (July 2008);
Method of information exchange in international relations – The EUROPOL Unit is part of the Sector for International Police Cooperation – the national authority for international police cooperation, and is part of the established single contact point for information exchange at the international level as structured in EU countries – SPOC (Single Point Of Contact);
Internal work procedures – A Rulebook for the operation of the EUROPOL Unit in performing tasks within its competence was adopted, as well as a Manual for the Unit’s procedures (February 2009). The Rulebook was initially adopted during the validity of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement with EUROPOL and was updated in 2015 to clarify procedures regarding the exchange of personal data. A new version of the Rulebook was adopted on April 20, 2016. This Rulebook regulates the operation of the EUROPOL Unit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in performing tasks and the operation of national authorities in cooperation with EUROPOL, including cooperation and responses to requests from EUROPOL and national authorities, exchange of personal data, marking systems, international relations, access to national databases, IT connectivity, EUROPOL information system, and organization of analytical work at EUROPOL.
Security rules, classified information, and confidentiality – In 2010, a sub-register for classified information was established within the EUROPOL Unit, which must meet administrative, physical, personnel, and information security requirements.

One of the key priorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the context of EU accession processes and included in the National Program for adopting EU law, was the conclusion of the Operational and Strategic Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of North Macedonia and EUROPOL (Official Gazette 172/11 of December 14, 2011). Upon the entry into force of the Agreement, operational activities intensified and strategic activities continued at an undiminished pace to increase the presence and participation of North Macedonia in EUROPOL activities to utilize EUROPOL’s services and products by competent authorities in North Macedonia.

On May 1, 2017, the new legal framework for EUROPOL – the EUROPOL Regulation – entered into force, strengthening EUROPOL’s mandate to fully equip it to address cross-border crime and terrorist threats. The new powers improve EUROPOL’s ability to act as a center for collecting and merging information at the EU level in the fight against terrorism and serious and organized crime. One of the novelties in the new legal framework is the update of EUROPOL’s mandate concerning criminal offenses under its jurisdiction (regulated in Annex 1 of the Regulation). Therefore, EUROPOL started a horizontal process of updating cooperation agreements with operational partners, including North Macedonia, regarding the types of crime under EUROPOL’s jurisdiction. Amendments to the Operational and Strategic Cooperation Agreement were made by exchange of letters in November 2017.

Starting from July 1, 2015, North Macedonia opened for the first time a Liaison Bureau at EUROPOL headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. From that date, a Liaison Officer from North Macedonia was assigned to EUROPOL.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONNECTIVITY

For secure exchange of operational and strategic information, North Macedonia and EUROPOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a secure communication link between North Macedonia and EUROPOL, as well as a Bilateral Agreement for connecting computer networks, specifically:

October 28, 2008 – Signed a Memorandum of Understanding for establishing a secure communication link and the NEUS network description – a technical document related to the Memorandum (for the old link).

February 6, 2009 – Established a secure communication link.

June 2, 2010 – Negotiations began to sign a new MoU and a Bilateral Agreement for computer networks. The texts of these documents were harmonized in 2010 and 2011, but due to unresolved positions regarding the use of the name of our country, diplomatic activities followed to finalize the procedure for their signing.

May 1, 2012 – The MoU came into force.

October 24, 2013 – Direct connection with the application for secure information exchange and network analysis of EUROPOL – SIENA, following training conducted from October 22 to 24, 2013 at the premises of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. SIENA (Secure Information Exchange Network Application) is an EUROPOL application, a tool for secure information exchange that facilitates the exchange of operational and strategic information related to crime among EUROPOL member states, EUROPOL, and EUROPOL’s third partners.

On August 14, 2015, the Bilateral Agreement was replaced by a Bilateral Technical Specification. Considering the administrative nature of the Bilateral Agreement, which details the technical parameters necessary for the implementation of Operational and Strategic cooperation agreements and Memorandums of Understanding, EUROPOL proposed replacing the signing procedure with electronic email notification, as well as changing the term Bilateral Agreement to Bilateral Technical Specification.

Changes were also made to Article 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding through an exchange of letters, as an established signing practice. The Director of EUROPOL signed the first exchange letter on March 18, 2016, and the Minister of Internal Affairs signed the second exchange letter on April 18, 2016. The Memorandum of Understanding entered into force on May 1, 2016.

In addition to the EUROPOL Unit as the national contact point, the SIENA application has been available since 2019 to the FAST unit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On June 10, 2020, SIENA was established in OSOSK, the Department for Combating Terrorism and Violent Extremism.

OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The signing of the operational cooperation agreement and the establishment of the SIENA secure communication channel enabled the intensification of operational cooperation with EUROPOL, EUROPOL member states, and third-party cooperation partners.

Furthermore, with the signing of the operational agreement, more efficient operational cooperation and direct participation in EUROPOL’s analytical work files (AWF - Analysis Work File) were enabled. AWFs are information processing systems for specific criminal areas, which are connected by crime types and operationally supported by EUROPOL.

Agreements for access, i.e., participation of the Ministry of Interior in a total of nine contact points (or, according to the new EUROPOL regulation, analytical projects) have been signed and are in force. Six of these concern the Analysis Work File for organized and serious crime, and three pertain to the Analysis Work File for counter-terrorism.

Notably, in 2013, North Macedonia participated as the only third country in a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) with Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands to combat illegal heroin trafficking. EUROPOL and Eurojust also participated within their mandates, and the coordination of requests and exchange of information was conducted through the Ministry of Interior – EUROPOL Department.

EMPACT (EUROPEAN MULTIDISCIPLINARY PLATFORM AGAINST CRIMINAL THREATS)

In 2010, the EU established a multi-year policy cycle aimed at ensuring effective cooperation in the fight against international serious and organized crime among law enforcement authorities of EU member states, EU institutions, EU agencies, and relevant third partners. This aims to deliver coherent and comprehensive operational action targeting the most critical criminal threats faced by the EU.

The Policy Cycle Consists of Four Key Steps:

Step 1: SOCTA (Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment)
SOCTA is an assessment of the threat posed by serious and organized crime, created by EUROPOL. It offers a package of recommendations based on thorough analyses of the main criminal threats facing the EU. The Council of Justice and Home Affairs uses these recommendations to define priorities for the next four years. SOCTA plays a crucial role in the policy cycle. From strategic priorities through operational action, it ensures an intelligence-based approach that should serve as the foundation for combating the main criminal threats faced by the EU. When preparing SOCTA, EUROPOL analyzes trends and examples from existing criminal data, but also goes further by capturing the environment and other factors that will influence crime in the next four years of the policy cycle. This provides a basis for well-founded predictions of future threats to internal security. The analyses that help develop priorities also support operational activities.
Step 2: MASP (Multi-Annual Strategic Action Plans)
These are multi-year strategic action plans developed according to the priorities, aiming to define strategic goals to combat each priority threat.
Step 3: EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats)
Within these projects, operational action plans (OAPs) are prepared to combat the priority threats.
Step 4: Monitoring and Evaluation
The effectiveness of the OAPs and their impact on priority threats is monitored by the EU Council’s Internal Security Committee (COSI).

SOCTA provided the foundation on which the EU Council aligned priorities in the field of serious and organized crime. Each of these priorities is translated into MASPs—multi-annual strategic action plans that define the strategic objectives to be achieved.

To reach these strategic goals, Operational Action Plans and EMPACT projects have been initiated to coordinate the activities of Member States and EU organizations against the identified threats.

On 27 March 2017, the EU Council decided to continue the activities in the fight against organized and serious crime for the period 2018-2021 within the EU Policy Cycle.

EMPACT projects for this period are:

Cybercrime
Illegal drug trafficking
Facilitation of illegal immigration
Organized property crime
Human trafficking
Excise and tax fraud
Illegal arms trafficking
Environmental crime
Financial crime and money laundering
Document fraud

Since 2015, North Macedonia has participated in Joint Action Days (JAD) within EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats). Through the EUROPOL Division and using the secure communication network SIENA, activities for executing operations were coordinated, and operational information was exchanged between the operational coordination centers in EUROPOL, National Coordination Centers, and participating countries in the operation.

Coordination of operational actions takes place on two levels — the Coordinating Regional Operational Center at EUROPOL and National Coordination Centers, where representatives from relevant organizational structures participate. The SMPD (Ministry of Interior), EUROPOL Division, conducts fast and secure exchange of operational information through the SIENA application.

2015

1-3.6.2015 – OPERATION BLUE AMBER - HIT 2, illegal trafficking of vehicles
23-24.6.2015 – OPERATION BLUE AMBER – SIROCCO, migrant smuggling
21-25.9.2015 – Joint Action Days (JAD) within OPERATION BLUE AMBER covering activities targeting criminal groups operating in various criminal areas such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and illegal migration
30.9.2015 to 4.10.2015 – BLUE AMBER – FIREARMS OA 2.1 for firearms in the Western Balkans

2016

21-22.06.2016 – OPERATION BLUE AMBER-SIROCCO 2 – illegal migration
10.2016 – OPERATION AVALA – illegal migration
12-13.10.2016 – LARGE SCALE JAD CICONIA 2016, human trafficking and illegal migration

2017

27/29.1.2017 – JAD 2016 Operation "Western Balkan Action Day 2016", illegal arms trafficking
11/13.10.2017 – JAD Dragon, illegal migration and human trafficking
11.2017 – TECUM – joint fight against environmental crime
17/19.11.2017 – JAD Firearms CALIBRE, illegal arms trafficking

2018

11/22.06.2018 – JAD Danube III, illegal migration
06/09.09.2018 – JAD 2018 Western Balkan Firearms, Illegal Migration, Drugs and Document Fraud; illegal trafficking and smuggling of arms and ammunition, illegal migration, drug trafficking, and document fraud
10-14.9.2018 and 19-23.11.2018 – OPERATION VIA DIAGONALIS – illegal drug trafficking
24.09-05.10.2018 – JAD MOBILE 2018, illegal migration, forged documents

2019

March, April – EEL – LICIT 2 – trafficking of endangered animals and plants
27.06. / 08.07.2019 – JAD Danube IV – illegal migration, document fraud
05/08.09.2019 – 2.1 Western Balkan Action Day-2019 (JAD) – prevention of illegal trafficking and smuggling of arms and ammunition, drug trafficking, and illegal migration
23.9-4.10.2019 – JAD Mobile 2 – motor vehicle crime, especially smuggling of stolen vehicles, vehicle parts, and related document fraud
25-28.11.2019 – JAD ARMSTRONG VI – arms trafficking in the EU via express and postal shipments

In the period from June 5-6, 2019, a two-day workshop on the topic “EU Policy Cycle” was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Skopje. The event was organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs with financial support from the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument of the European Commission – TAIEX. Experts from the European Commission, the Council of the EU, EUROPOL, the Federal Ministry of Interior of Austria gave presentations on the topic, and representatives from the Secretariat of the Vienna Police Convention, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Customs Administration, and the Financial Intelligence Unit participated.

2020

Operation Retrovirus – Collection, transport, management, and disposal of sanitary waste originating from health centers and other facilities responsible for handling the pandemic, in accordance with international, EU, and national legislation.
Operation Waste – Illegal disposal of waste in the Balkans and possible involvement of EU countries or third countries.
Operation SHIELD – Counterfeiting and piracy of products and trafficking of hormonal substances through websites, sellers on e-commerce platforms, forums, social media, or sellers on the deep web.
Operation Endurance – Crime involving domains related to the COVID-19 pandemic by detecting newly registered domains opened for criminal purposes.
Referral Action Day (RAD) – Detection of terrorist content on the Internet, including how to prepare and execute terrorist attacks, how to select attack targets, how to use weapons and make bombs.
JAD WB EU IRU – Online jihadist propaganda in the languages of the Western Balkan countries to detect jihadist propaganda networks produced and/or aimed at Western Balkan countries, distributed in the languages of these countries.
JAD Southeast Europe – Illegal trafficking of firearms and drugs, illegal migration.
JAD Mobile 3 – Cross-border motor vehicle crime, illegal migration, and document forgery.
Operation Armstrong VII – Suppression of illegal arms trafficking via express and postal services.
Operation Bosphorus – Planned activity within EMPACT Firearms 2020 OAP 2.1 targeting gas/signal pistols of Turkish manufacture.
JAD Danube 5 – Document forgery, illegal migration, and migrant smuggling

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