Legal Status of European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol)

Abstract

The success of Ukraine's strategic course towards full membership in the European Union depends on many factors, in particular, on establishing effective cooperation with the Member States of the European Union and its bodies in the field of prevention and counteraction to various manifestations of organized crime. Among the various agencies of the European Union, European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) performs the largest amount of work in this field. In this regard, the article analyzes the history of Europol from its inception as an international intergovernmental organization (European Police Office) to its current state - an independent European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). To disclose the legal status of Europol, the focus is on the purpose and objectives of its creation, the types of crimes against which Europol’s work is directed, the competence of Europol, which covers more than forty forms of criminal activity, the structure of internal bodies, the normative legal bases of Europol’s interaction with the Member States and other agencies of the European Union, third countries (strategic cooperation agreements and operational cooperation agreements) and international organizations, the genesis of the normative legal bases for relations between Europol and Ukraine. According to the results of the study, the history of the formation of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) is proposed to be divided into two stages: 1. Europol as an international intergovernmental organization of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on the establishment of a European Police Office of 26 July 1995; 2. Europol as the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). At each stage of Europol's formation, its legal status also changed. At the present stage of Europol's work, its legal status is determined by the Regulation (EU) 2016/794 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).