NCJ Number
146149
Journal
European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (1993) Pages: 37-56
Date Published
1993
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The regulation of international police cooperation in Western Europe is discussed.
Abstract
The Schengen Convention of 1990 is a landmark in the history of the regulation of international police cooperation in Western Europe. To date, eight nations (Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal) have been willing to sign. Even if the treaty is not ultimately ratified by all these states, let alone the other four members of the European Community (England, Denmark, Greece and Ireland), it is historically significant. It has provoked many initiatives to accomplish new forms of police cooperation and to broaden and intensify existing arrangements in this field. In order to discuss their importance in relation to the history and the future of international police cooperation in Western Europe, the background and content of the treaties are explained. Secondly, some of the existing formal or, at least, official arrangements for police cooperation in the original five Schengen states are compared with relevant provisions in the Schengen Convention. This article presents the aforementioned topics in the following general categories: (1) Preliminaries for a discussion about the significance of the Schengen treaties (historical context of the treaties, framework of the European Community); (2) General content of the Schengen Convention with respect to police cooperation; (3) Innovative character of the Schengen Convention (police border agreement between the Netherlands and Belgium of 1949, Benelux treaty on extradition and mutual assistance in criminal matters of 1962, Convention of Paris between Germany and France of 1977; (4) From the Schengen Treaties to the Treaty on European Union: The Foundation, Position, Task and Powers of Europol. 44 footnotes