ABSTRACT
One can make a number of observations about the theatre of European police cooperation. After nearly two decades of construction, the most visible aspect of police cooperation within the context of the European Union is the vast number of initiatives and the proliferation of instruments that has resulted from it. This steep growth – at least when one considers the quantity and scope of legal instruments – presents a particular challenge to academic experts, lawyers and practitioners. The increase of instruments is partly due to the discovery of security as a new policy arena which has been appropriated by the European Union polity, and which has been shaped as the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. On the other hand, the increase may be due to the fact that police officers tend to be pioneering actors who are continuously looking for chances and opportunities to cooperate and to transform their initiatives in durable cross-border enterprises. The incremental nature (Walker 2004) of the policy-making process, the gradual layering of new laws and instruments without declaring old instruments obsolete, has been labelled as a form of modern conservatism. These developments cannot exist without consequences for the police profession. In terms of education and knowledge acquisition, police officers who are in training are increasingly being requested to understand and interpret international legal instruments that apply to international cooperation, which include a wide and rapidly developing range varying from anything like a Mutual Legal Assistance Convention to the European Code for Law Enforcement
Ethics. A sound knowledge of the content and strategic orientation of these instruments is, however, indispensable in the establishment of an international law enforcement culture.
