EU unveils Europol overhaul to fight AI-powered cross-border crime
Brussels wants Europol in the cloud, with shared case files and support offices in member states. The tradeoff is faster AI-era policing against tougher scrutiny of data sharing powers.
The European Commission unveiled a June 24 package to give Europol a sovereign cloud, a shared police data space and support offices in member states. It also proposed changes to Eurojust, the European Investigation Order and the EU institutions’ data-protection rules.
The proposal would give Europol a secure, scalable, sovereign cloud infrastructure and a European Police Shared Data Space so investigators can work remotely on common cases. It would also create Europol Support Offices in EU countries, staffed by Europol officers working closely with national authorities, and a new technology and innovation hub to give the agency, for the first time, an EU-wide picture of law-enforcement capability needs. The tools would be available directly to member states’ law-enforcement authorities through the shared data space.
Brussels wants faster information sharing and fewer bureaucratic delays, but the same architecture that could speed joint cases also deepens the flow of sensitive personal and operational data across borders. The package pairs policing changes with a revision of the European Investigation Order and amendments to data-protection rules for Union institutions and bodies.
Europol’s IOCTA 2024 warned that AI-based technologies are making social engineering more effective and that AI-assisted cybercrime has only just begun. EU-SOCTA 2025 says serious and organised crime is increasingly exploiting digital transformation and is now intertwined with hybrid threats. Europol’s 2025 annual migrant-smuggling report says criminal networks are increasingly present in the digital domain.
Europol launched the European Centre Against Migrant Smuggling on March 24, 2026, with a focus on data-driven, OSINT and financial investigations. Monopoly Market led to 288 arrests across nine countries, and Operation RapTor led to 270 arrests across ten countries.
Henna Virkkunen said criminals are highly adept at exploiting the digital realm and operating across borders without limitations.
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