EU plans to expand Europol's powers to tackle AI crime, raising privacy concerns

1. 01:28
   POLITICO Europe Technology

   EU plans to expand Europol's powers and double its budget, intensifying privacy oversight disputes

   The European Commission has proposed a transformative reform of Europol, doubling its budget to €3 billion and having the agency, which has coordinated European police intelligence since 1998, directly engage in countering new threats and gain access to more data and advanced technology. European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) head Wojciech Wiewiórowski expressed support for Europol's use of data and AI tools, but questioned the lack of accompanying oversight arrangements in the proposal and warned that the agency could retain large amounts of data on people unrelated to criminal activity for long, unspecified periods. Europol Deputy Executive Director Jürgen Ebner said AI makes crime faster, more complex, and easier to scale, and that AI can help investigators filter massive volumes of digital evidence, connect information, and identify actionable intelligence. The proposal retains the EDPS's supervisory role over Europol, but Wiewiórowski believes the EDPS's powers and resources have not been strengthened in tandem, and that internal bodies have too much power without external oversight.

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