By EUROPOL and the Basil Institute of Governance

These recommendations follow the 7th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies on 26–27 October 2023. The conference was co-organised by Europol and the Basel Institute on Governance and took place in hybrid format at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. The Recommendations highlight broad approaches and best practices to prevent and combat the use of crypto assets and services to make, hide and launder illicit money. The five recommendations highlight the need for accelerated action in order to combat the use of crypto assets, as well the allocation of more resources, better training and better collaboration.

They are to:

Accelerate innovation for investigative and monitoring tools

Boost enforcement capacity and training

Reorganise to foster collaboration and prioritisation

Engage proactively in multi-sector collaborations

Consider the whole chain, from prevention to facilitators

Basel, SWIT: Basel Institute of Governance, 2024. 7p.

By Jane Kilpatrick, Chris Jones

The new rules governing Europol, which came into force at the end of June, massively expand the tasks and powers of the EU’s policing agency whilst reducing external scrutiny of its data processing operations and rights protections for individuals, says a report published today by Statewatch. Given Europol’s role as a ‘hub’ for information processing and exchange between EU member states and other entities, the new rules thus increase the powers of all police forces and other agencies that cooperate with Europol, argues the report, Empowering the police, removing protections. New tasks granted to Europol include supporting the EU’s network of police “special intervention units” and managing a cooperation platform for coordinating joint police operations, known as EMPACT. However, it is the rules governing the processing and exchange of data that have seen the most significant changes.

London: Statewatch, 2022. 55p.