March of the Euro Police: Shocking New Powers

The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today. An investigation has uncovered an array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public. These include:

• Europol, the £60 million-a-year European criminal intelligence agency, whose officers have diplomatic immunity.
• An 800-strong paramilitary police force called the European Gendarmerie Force.
• The European Arrest Warrant, which now allows British citizens to be seized in the UK and sent without appeal to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial.

Europol now has more than 650 officials at its headquarters in The Hague, from where it directs investigations across Europe. When its Euro police officers are operating in the UK they have diplomatic immunity and cannot be touched by the British judiciary. Europol’s director is Rob Wainwright, 43, a Welsh-speaking former British civil servant who joined Europol last year. He and his officials will move into a new £8.5 million building next year.

The paramilitary police force has been trained in Italy and armed to be deployed as ‘an expeditionary police mission’ under military command if necessary. The gendarmerie is not yet a full EU institution. However, its official purpose is ‘a consistent and co-ordinated deployment of EU police forces with a military status and full police powers. The EGF will be, first and foremost, at the disposal of the EU.’ Members are drawn from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, France and the Netherlands.