Organised crime: common framework for liaison officers

KEY POINTS

The Member States must ensure that Member States’ liaison officers posted to the same non-EU country or international organisation:

• meet regularly to exchange useful information;
• work together to improve relations with the host country;
• share tasks among themselves, where appropriate;
• look after the interests of one or more other Member States, if this has been agreed on by the Member States concerned;
• participate in joint seminars on crime trends.

Any Member State that does not have a liaison officer in a non-EU country may approach another Member State that does.

Each year, the Member States must notify the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union of the following:

• the posting of liaison officers to a non-EU country or organisation, including their responsibilities;
• the national contact points that they must designate in order to facilitate the implementation of this decision.

The General Secretariat of the Council draws up an annual summary concerning the seconded Member State and Europol liaison officers, their duties and any cooperative agreements concluded on the posting of officers.

Europol liaison officers provide Europol with information relating to serious threats of criminal offences to Member States. Such information is passed on to the relevant national authorities.

Decision 2003/170/JHA repeals joint action 96/602/JHA and Article 47(4) of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement (see summary).