Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals
3:00 pm
Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Europol's main function would to provide information that the police force in an EU member state would use. However, Europol can also jointly investigate with a member state's force. Europol would not land in a state on its own and start an investigation. There would be certain sovereignty issues in respect of that. This instrument envisages a joint investigation by Europol and a member state's police force. Of course, one could have a co-operative investigation across a number of member states where there is a particular issue under investigation.