Extraordinary Powers Granted To European Police

From the Alfred the Great Society and Alliance Defense Fund:

Extraordinary Powers Granted to European Police


November 27th by Robin Phillips 0 Comments

Posted in Articles, Current events, Featured, Politics

On 22 November, the full extent of the EU’s police and criminal prosecution powers emerged.



These powers include the “European Arrest Warrant.” This allows British citizens to be captured within the UK and extradited to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial without the right of appeal.



Most UK citizens are unaware of these powers, which came when the Lisbon Treaty removed Britain’s veto in justice and home affairs.



Just as the Treaty of Rome in 1957 provided the architecture for all states to be brought into a common agricultural policy, so the Lisbon Treaty established that laws relating to freedom, security and justice are a ‘shared competence’.



Mary Ellen Synon wrote in the Daily Mail explaining the meaning of ‘shared competence’. “This means EU law can now suppress existing legislation in justice and home affairs in a member state and replace it with European legislation.”



The justice powers now possessed by the EU include the European criminal intelligence agency ‘Europol’. Headquartered in The Hague, they receive £60 million-a-year and make up the EU’s federal police force. The picture above is above is of Catherine Zeta-Jones who played a Europol agent in the movie Ocean’s 12.



Europol’s 650 officials have diplomatic immunity, making them functionally unaccountable to the laws of Britain even though they can work in the UK.



In addition to the European arrest warrant, EU police powers also include “European Gendarmerie Force” – a 800-strong paramilitary police force that can be placed under military command and deployed as ‘an expeditionary police mission.’ The stated function of the European Gendarmerie Force is to “[aim] at a consistent and coordinated capability to deploy police forces with military status and full police powers.”



Through the European Investigation Order (EIO), the EU also has control of the British police. This order gives EU officers the power to force British police to investigate on their behalf, even if the person being investigated has not committed a UK crime. EIO also allows European officers to force UK police to interrogate suspects, to hand over DNA samples and fingerprints, to intercept communications and to spy on bank records.



This is just the beginning, however. In the years to come these departments will be expanding. Even though the EU is facing financial meltdown, the budget for justice and home affairs is set to increase by 13% in the year to come.