On Monday 7 September, Sophie Wilmès, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and Bernard Quintin, Federal Minister for Security and the Interior, visited the headquarters of Europol, the European police cooperation agency, in The Hague (Netherlands). This working visit is part of the review of the agency's mandate, following the European Commission's reform proposal presented last June. For Sophie Wilmès and Bernard Quintin, the Commission's proposal provides a good working basis that needs to be strengthened. Within the European Parliament, Sophie Wilmès will negotiate on this file for the Renew group. Minister Quintin, for his part, will represent the Belgian position in the discussions taking place within the Council of the European Union.
The revision of Europol's mandate is self-evident for both liberals. They are calling for a strengthened agency, equipped with human, financial and technological resources commensurate with the challenges. Crime in Europe has evolved very rapidly in recent years. Existing tools and cooperation arrangements must keep pace with this evolution. Criminal networks are more transnational than ever, with masterminds, recruiters and operatives spread across several countries. Crime has also shifted strongly towards digital spaces, which serve as an extension of illegal activities. Against this backdrop, Sophie Wilmès and Bernard Quintin believe cooperation remains too timid, too fragmented, with information circulating with difficulty between the different actors, whether states, European agencies or the private sector.
In concrete terms, Europol's added value rests in particular on its capacity to collect, analyse and cross-reference, at European level, information transmitted by Member States. On average, the agency receives around a hundred contributions per hour from Member States, with peaks reaching up to 167 contributions per hour last year. This dynamic reflects the trust placed by Member States in the agency, which provides genuine analytical and operational support in their fight against crime. In this regard, Belgium remains one of the main contributors to Europol.
Sophie Wilmès places the issue in the context of current events in Belgium: “In the face of violence, drug trafficking and shootings affecting certain neighbourhoods in Brussels, the effort must be collective. The European level is sometimes less visible in this debate, and yet strengthening Europol's capabilities will help, for example, to trace masterminds and recruiters, cut off financing channels, freeze profits and thus dismantle the entire chain fuelling insecurity in our neighbourhoods. What is negotiated at European level can therefore have very concrete consequences for Brussels residents. That is why we want to turn Europol into a genuine European centre of excellence serving our police forces: a hub of excellence in analysis, operational support and innovation.”
Bernard Quintin adds: “In a difficult security context, I declared a national emergency and mobilised unprecedented resources in the fight against drug trafficking. Our police officers are on the ground every day, on the front line against criminal networks operating internationally. In 2025, the federal police transmitted nearly 2,800 suspect profiles to Europol: three out of ten matched ongoing investigations in other member states. These figures tell a simple truth: the masterminds behind the shootings in Brussels are not always located in our capital. Strengthening Europol is simply essential, to trace the masterminds, arrest them and cut off their financing at the source. The upcoming Europol reform must give it the means to act faster, more effectively and with ever-greater precision. The Belgian taxpayer funds Europol. They have the right to expect ever more concrete results.”
The visit also provided a concrete view of Europol's role as a European hub for processing and analysing information. Drawing on huge data flows, Europol continuously analyses and cross-references information, 24/7, to trace the criminal chain. On site, representatives of Member States collaborate in real time on cases.
The discussions also covered the fight against drug trafficking and highlighted a rapidly evolving landscape. Quantities of cocaine and synthetic drugs are expanding sharply in Europe, while heroin is declining. While major ports remain key points of concern, criminal networks are increasingly diversifying their routes towards smaller ports to circumvent tightened controls as much as possible. The drop in seizures observed since 2023 at certain major entry points reflects this trend, forcing Europol to constantly adapt its approach: every loophole is immediately exploited, which calls for a preventive approach.
Given the rapid evolution of technologies and criminal methods, emphasis was also placed on new technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, which, combined with the necessary safeguards, allows for better use of data and processed information. Europol already uses AI in complex criminal investigations to process and analyse large volumes of data and boost investigators' productivity. In concrete terms, AI can be used to sort and search for similar images, and to automatically extract information from a photo, such as a container number. Sophie Wilmès and Bernard Quintin believe that AI will play an increasingly important role in the future, which justifies strengthening Europol's expertise in this area. This challenge becomes all the more important as the volume and complexity of data increase.
Finally, the modernisation of weapons, the growing use of drones, the sabotage of critical infrastructure and cybercrime are among the developments the agency must be able to respond to. Threats are increasingly hybrid in nature, and Europol undeniably has a role to play in supporting the states affected by them.
Bernard Quintin states: “Ursula von der Leyen has announced a new European action plan against drug trafficking. Our country will ensure that it rises to the challenge, and that it tackles the entire chain, from entry points to financing. Our Belgian ports are economic lifelines for our country and our continent, but also potential gateways for drugs. Security there is constantly being strengthened, and Europol will have to play an increasingly active role in this area, including anticipating the observed shift of criminal networks towards secondary ports. But fighting the networks and securing entry points will not be enough if our investigators lack the right tools to exploit available intelligence. That is where artificial intelligence comes in. The Belgian federal police has developed its own ecosystem in this area, but more must be done at European level. What we expect from Europol is that it moves beyond the pilot-project stage and genuinely deploys these capabilities to investigators on the ground. The challenge is no longer whether police will use AI. It is about accelerating its deployment.”
Following this visit, Sophie Wilmès places particular emphasis on a major issue in the fight against crime and, above all, drug trafficking: online recruitment, especially of minors. Recruiting minors to carry out acts of violence is now among Europol's priorities. The phenomenon is growing across Europe and affects increasingly younger children, sometimes as young as 13 or 14. For Sophie Wilmès, this development calls for greater vigilance and a European response: recruiters, the young people approached and the acts committed may all be in different countries. The European Commission has announced initiatives on this subject, but it is clear that Europol's mandate must be strengthened in this regard.
She explains: “The Brussels King's Prosecutor recently referred to French minors recruited by criminal networks active in the capital. This shows that this phenomenon no longer respects borders. Europol already coordinates the GRIMM task force against the recruitment of young people, and Belgium takes part in it. But this capacity to act must be strengthened: giving investigators the means to detect and intervene much earlier, to cross-reference information and identify the people behind the accounts used, and to share alerts with authorities and platforms in order to act more quickly and preventively. Europol has developed significant expertise against terrorist content online; we must have the same, permanent capabilities against recruitment by criminal networks.”