ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates state integration preferences on EU police cooperation between 2010 and 2022, including the adoption of the Europol Regulation in 2016 and a proposal to further strengthen its mandate in 2020. It assesses the emergence of a ‘centre approach’ at Europol: the creation of multiple centres of expertise, ranging from cybercrime and intellectual property crime to counterterrorism, migrant smuggling and most recently economic and financial crime. The post-Council Decision period and current Europol demonstrate a continuity of various integration trends and driving factors from the early 2000s. The adoption and revision of the Europol Regulation demonstrate a recent culmination of supranational policy entrepreneurship in EU police cooperation, particularly the Commission's pro-integration influence on state preferences. Political and cultivated spill-overs played a primary role as drivers of Member States’ resolve to further strengthen Europol's mandate. Interdependencies arguably mattered less by comparison, while politicisation created windows of opportunity for the entrepreneurship of EU actors and was leveraged strategically by the latter to multiply pressure on governments.
