Leiden University Student Repository

Ceccarelli, Mario (2019)

Europol and its weak counter-terrorism role

Bachelor thesis | Geschiedenis (BA)

The lifting of internal borders across the European Union (EU) has brought new challenges to European security. Terrorists are enormously benefitting from the increasing openness of the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ) to perpetuate attacks. An intelligence service across the EU, comparable to the American FBI, would come as logical consequence. To this end, Europol, the European agency tasked with assisting MSs in intelligence cooperation, was established. However, it still lacks vital executive powers such as the ones to monitor suspects, arrest and launch its own investigations. This thesis focuses on how the lack of executive powers hindered Europol’s role as an intelligence actor during the deadly attacks of November 15, 2015 in Paris. The attacks are considered as a good example of transnational threat since they were coordinated by cell located in Belgium and valuable material of analysis because of the poor involvement of the agency. Finally, the dissertation...Show moreThe lifting of internal borders across the European Union (EU) has brought new challenges to European security. Terrorists are enormously benefitting from the increasing openness of the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ) to perpetuate attacks. An intelligence service across the EU, comparable to the American FBI, would come as logical consequence. To this end, Europol, the European agency tasked with assisting MSs in intelligence cooperation, was established. However, it still lacks vital executive powers such as the ones to monitor suspects, arrest and launch its own investigations. This thesis focuses on how the lack of executive powers hindered Europol’s role as an intelligence actor during the deadly attacks of November 15, 2015 in Paris. The attacks are considered as a good example of transnational threat since they were coordinated by cell located in Belgium and valuable material of analysis because of the poor involvement of the agency. Finally, the dissertation sheds light on whether the events that affected the French capital triggered any important change at Europol’s mandate in counter-terrorism.Show less

Europol

terrorism

EU counter-terrorism

Paris attacks

Author

Ceccarelli, Mario

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

pre-master EU studies

Supervisors

Rood, Jan

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en