Russia and the European Police Office (Europol) have been successfully cooperating for 13 years, since signing an agreement in Rome in November 2003, Jurgen Storbeck told Radio Sputnik.
The agreement mainly concerns strategic cooperation, strategic intelligence gathering, technology, early warning systems, terrorism and organized crime, he specified. He added that there is always room for improvement, and there is much more that can be done in terms of cybercrime.
Russia has expertise in this sphere, a prime example being Kaspersky Lab which was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky who currently holds the post of its CEO, the officer said.
Storbeck said that along with Europol, certain countries like Germany can also benefit from access to such expertise. But while there is an opportunity to develop cooperation further in the future, the two should overcome various hurdles in their relationship, including legal and political obstacles.
"It is a difficult process but I am sure we are on the way to do it because there is a common demand, a common need for Russia as well as for the European Union," he told Sputnik.
"It is a common rule for all law enforcement agencies: they have to learn from the best practices. If Russia has very good practices, it should offer it, for example, to my friend Peter Neumann (Director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization), who is now developing programs on protection of communities against any attacks," he added.
The EU, for example, needs to improve its early warning system to be able to prevent the new attack methods used by terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State (Daesh) and Al-Qaeda. Russia has a better security system than the EU, it should share it with the EU and other countries, the law enforcement officer said.
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