EU Parliament Backs Granting More Anti-Terror Powers to Interpol

The European parliament voted on Wednesday to grant more powers to EU-wide police force Interpol which will allow it to intervene more on terrorism, the legislature’s home affairs committee said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The "critical" regulation that makes Interpol an information hub for EU's law enforcement took three years to formulate and will come into force in spring 2017, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos said as he presented the final document. 

#EPlenary: new powers to help @Europol to step up efforts to fight terrorism and cybercrime https://t.co/aEuv2BgNZ9 pic.twitter.com/kA7VHSvmnt

— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) 11 May 2016

​"What makes this Regulation critical is that our fight against terrorism is at the very top of the political agenda," Commissioner Avramopoulos said.

The initiative sought to revise rules on data exchange and protection to strike a balance between Interpol’s powers to fight terrorism and organized crime, and the agency’s accountability toward the European parliament as well as national legislatures.