display
In an online discussion on cross-border terrorism, Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) spoke out on Thursday in favor of giving Europol more powers. "I call for a European FBI," said Pistorius in an interview with the chairman of the Interior Committee in the European Parliament Juan Fernando López Aguilar and the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove. Only a digitally upgraded and EU-wide police force can effectively fight international crime, especially cyber crime.
For this purpose, the General Data Protection Regulation must also be adapted, as it currently does not always allow quick access to investigation-relevant data. Data protection is not a super basic right, said the Lower Saxony interior minister. The protection of life and limb is at least as important. "If we do not set the course now, take the resources in hand and hire and train the staff, we will be blind and deaf in five years", emphasized Pistorius. Frontex and Europol must work closely together to guarantee the EU's internal security. "If we don't do that, the European idea will lose its acceptance," warned Pistorius.
The speakers agreed that in view of the technological developments in the Internet and telecommunications sector, the EU had to upgrade its police force. Otherwise, criminals and terrorists could misuse new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computers, 3D printing or synthetic biology for their own purposes, warned de Kerchove. A danger also arises from the new 5G mobile network, as it can be encrypted much more easily compared to the previous networks. Here too, Europol has to keep pace with technology.