Europe needs an FBI

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 4th May 2004

The EU needs its own crime-fighting body like America's Federal Bureau of Investigation, Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton Dunn MEP (UK, East Midlands) argued today. In his pamphlet launched at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Newton Dunn outlines how organised crime is wreaking havoc amongst the lives of citizens in the EU, argues for a new strategy and calls for an EU law enforcement force, able to investigate and make arrests where EU legislation is believed to have been breached.

Commenting at the launch of the pamphlet, Mr Newton Dunn said: "The problem is that organised crime crosses open European borders with great ease. But police forces everywhere in Europe are national or local, and cannot easily cross borders. Hence organised crime has a built-in advantage, even more so in the Enlarged Union.

"Organised criminal gangs are extensive but unseen because the gangs prefer it that way. There is little publicity about their activities because national governments prefer to concentrate on fighting crime inside their own national borders, to gain credit and to win national elections. They receive little credit from their public for allocating scarce national resources to fight pan-European crime."

"There are many crimes for which cross-border co-operation in Europe would be of great benefit: cyber crime, drug trafficking, trafficking in women, children and illegal immigrants, money laundering, tobacco trafficking, car theft, currency forgery, counterfeit documents and counterfeit goods. But too many obstacles to such co-operation remain."

"Neither Europol in The Hague nor Interpol in Lyon are able to make arrests. They are obliged to ask for national forces to try to build a multi-country team, which can be very slow. There is rivalry between them. Intelligence about organised crime is protected jealously by law enforcement agencies both within each European country and between agencies in different countries. Just as the USA found after '9/11', there is too little intelligence sharing in Europe about organised crime."

"We can either stand back and watch as organised crime grows ever stronger. Or worse, we can wait until a serious crisis such as the Madrid bombings forces our governments into overdue and precipitate action."

The key recommendations in Mr Newton Dunn's pamphlet are:

• Ensure the public is better informed about organised crime.

• Change the priorities of national police forces to also fight organised crime.

• Follow Ireland's creation of a Criminal Assets Bureau in each EU state.

• Put more pressure on the governments of the Balkan countries, where organised crime is rife.

• National governments must pass EU legislation quickly, not leave it on the back burner.

• Create an FBI for Europe to counter organised crime among those EU states who are willing and have the best police, such as the UK and Germany.