The UK should stay the hell away from the EU’s police force

As the Labour government’s ‘Brexit reset’ looks likely to drive the UK into the cold embrace of the EU once again, I’m reminded of a quote from Tony Benn’s diaries. On visiting the European Commission in 1974, the then Labour MP wrote:

‘This huge Commission building in Brussels, in the shape of a cross, is absolutely un-British. I felt as if I were going as a slave to Rome; the whole relationship was wrong. Here was I, an elected man who could be removed, doing a job, and here were these people with more power than I had and no accountability to anyone.’

Benn’s insight into the essentially un-democratic nature of the EU continues to ring true. As a former police officer, I dealt a lot with Europol, both before and after Brexit. Europol is the EU’s law-enforcement agency, located in The Hague, which is supposed to support member states in their efforts to combat serious and organised crime. It wasn’t Imperial Rome that it brought to mind for me. It was France under Louis XIV. A place where lavish excess and absolute monarchy combined under a king who had more interest in building a palace like Versailles than looking after his own people.

The first thing you notice when you approach Europol headquarters is its size and brutalist design. Like Versailles, you’re meant to be impressed, or intimidated, before you even step inside. Heading towards the main entrance, you pass through a landscaped concourse with wild plants all about the place. I guess it’s meant to have that au naturel feeling, but as a cold wind blows across from the equally spartan Novotel Den Haag, it feels like you’re walking through a brownfield wasteland in the middle of January.

Then, you notice a pond. It runs the entire length of one side of the building, and is brimming with koi carp, the most expensive fish in the world. These are purchased at European taxpayers’ expense, presumably so Europol employees have something nice to walk past every day.

After getting through the secure-entry procedure, you are ushered into the main reception. This space is cavernous, the walls are marble, and expensive art hangs from the ceiling. Europol’s ‘Operational Centre’, which would comfortably put a Bond villain to shame, is by far the most extravagant I have ever seen, and certainly surpasses anything built for a British police agency.

Cost clearly isn’t a consideration for Europol. But, crucially, the huge expenditure has not translated into an effective organisation. Indeed, from my experience, Europol is often far less efficient than our own domestic police forces. For example, rather than acting on evidence immediately (which most would agree is basic operational policing), it is only acted on if it coincides with a defined Europol ‘day of action’. Incredibly, this can be weeks or even months from when the evidence was first gathered. How much evidence might be lost in the intervening time is anyone’s guess.

As a matter of course, each ‘day of action’ is accompanied by a triumphant press release. It is hard to avoid the impression that, for Europol at least, this is the most important aspect of the job. Policing is treated as a propaganda exercise, vital in letting Europeans know that the vast amount they spend on EU institutions is worthwhile.

I couldn’t get any of this out of my mind when I read the details of the UK’s ‘reset’ with the EU. Certainly, Europol is not an organisation we should be looking to increase our ties with. Unfortunately, that appears to be exactly what last week’s deal threatens.

Take the agreement to ‘deepen co-operation’ over DNA, fingerprint and vehicle-registration data. This is one area where the UK should be particularly wary. Historically, many European jurisdictions have had little regard for individual rights. British citizens could find that their intimate medical records and genetic information ends up in the hands of foreign states, for what may only be minor offences.

Then we come to the pledge to ‘share best practices’ on how to manage returns of ‘irregular’ migrants to third countries. Initially, I thought this was some kind of joke. This year, a record number of small boats have arrived on UK shores. All of these boats have come from France, where people-smuggling cartels seemingly operate with impunity. Germany has as many illegal immigrants as the UK does. Is the EU really who we want to look to when it comes to ‘best practice’ on illegal immigration?

From a security point of view, it looks as though the EU has got all that it wanted in this deal. We are getting closer to its institutions, and paying for the privilege, without getting much of anything worthwhile in return. It’s no wonder Ursula von der Leyen had such a big smile on her face last week.

Paul Birch is a retired police officer.