Athens, 2 February 2021

Meeting of Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol with participation of Hellenic Parliament delegation

A Hellenic Parliament delegation comprised of the Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice, MP Maximos Harakopoulos and members of the Committee and MPs Konstantinos Karagounis and Christos Spirtzis, participated in the 8th meeting of the JPSG on Europol, via teleconference, in the framework of the scrutiny and monitoring of Europol activities by the members of national parliaments of the member states and the European Parliament. 

During the 2-day meeting participants discussed the Organisation's activities from September 2020 to February 2021. Keynote speakers for this segment were the Executive Director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle and the European Data Protection Supervisor, Wojciech Wiewiórowski. Other issues on the agenda were cybercrime and digital resilience and the issue of revising the rules of procedure and strengthening the Europol mandate, with keynote speeches by Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, and Eduardo Cabrita, the Portuguese Minister for Home Affairs. 

On the issue of the revision of the rules of procedure, the Head of the Greek delegation, Maximos Harakopoulos, noted the need for a security alarm in Europe and the prerequisite for that would be coordination among member states, while he attached special significance to cooperation with FRONTEX and authorities in third countries, since the migrant issue is a major one both for Europe and Greece. Underlining that transparency, democratic control and the protection of the freedom of the citizens must not be infringed upon, Mr. Harakopoulos asked the Commissioner on what basis cooperation with private entities will take place while fully respecting personal data.

In answer to Mr. Harakopoulos, Mrs. Johansson clarified that when forging synergies with third countries high standards are set that few countries meet, while in the case of private entities very strict standards have been set with respect to individual rights. 

Regarding the effects of the pandemic on internal EU security and police cooperation, Mr. Harakopooulos stressed that the restrictions imposed should be treated as society's self-defence and not as a method of repression by governments, while he pointed out the need to control fake news which corrode efforts to address the pandemic. 

In his intervention, Mr. Karagounis noted that under the spectrum of the pandemic and the emerging new kinds of threats, enhancing interoperability is expected to upgrade the existing security levels. He pointed out, however, that as far as Europol's cooperation with private entities is concerned and with regard to data processing to assist in criminal investigations, a balanced approach should be sought in order to ensure personal data protection. 

Regarding cybercrime and digital resilience, Mr. Karagounis noted that the increase in the number of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors online is extremely alarming and asked to be briefed on specific actions that Europol plans to take to tackle the rise in cybercrime.

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