European Parliament backs Europol expansion: “A dangerous step towards mass surveillance in the EU”
Today, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted in favour of a new Europol Regulation, part of the EU’s so-called Facilitators Package, despite widespread warnings from civil society and the European Data Protection Supervisor. The vote was voted for by 59 MEPs, whilst 10 voted against and 4 abstained.
Today, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted in favour of a new Europol Regulation, part of the EU’s so-called Facilitators Package, despite widespread warnings from civil society and the European Data Protection Supervisor. The vote was voted for by 59 MEPs, whilst 10 voted against and 4 abstained.
“By voting in favour of the Europol Regulation, Members of the LIBE Committee have greenlighted the European Commission’s long-term plan to turn Europe into a digital police state. It is time for the European Parliament to show foresight and oppose any attempt to instrumentalise migration policies to attack everyone’s rights and profit the surveillance industry.”
If approved in plenary at the end of this month, the reform will hand Europol unprecedented powers to collect, process and share data, including biometrics such as facial recognition, and allow data exchanges with non-EU states, including authoritarian regimes. The proposal passed without any impact assessment, against the Commission’s own guidelines for Better Regulation.
“Today's vote proves that the EU has abandoned all pretense of a humane and evidence-based migration policy - turning instead to biometric surveillance and force to prevent people from seeking safety. This reform has expanded Europol's surveillance capacities at the expense of migrants and to the benefit of the border surveillance industrial complex. The European Parliament must find its conscience and reject the Europol Regulation in the plenary vote at the end of November.”
The vote revealed a worrying convergence among political groups in support of expanding surveillance powers, mirroring far-right approaches to migration and security. Despite months of warnings from rights organisations, the majority of MEPs backed a proposal that further normalises the criminalisation of migration.
The Regulation forms part of a broader legislative push to criminalise migration and solidarity, known as the Facilitators Package. Under the new rules, Europol will be able to access vast amounts of personal data – from migrants, aid workers and journalists alike – and share it with third countries or private actors, with few transparency requirements and limited oversight.
Civil society groups warn that this vote further entrenches the EU’s use of security and criminal frameworks to manage migration. More than 120 organisations from across Europe had called on MEPs to reject the proposal in its entirety, arguing it is “unlawful, unsafe, and unsubstantiated.”
The proposal will now move to plenary for a final vote later this month, where MEPs still have a chance to reverse course.
“The recently approved Europol reform legitimises the agency’s unaccountable and opaque data practices and warrants their extensive use against migrants, racialised communities and human rights defenders. Europol’s expansive approach to data collection, storage and analysis creates a data black hole which fundamentally undermines people’s rights and the rule of law. The European Parliament has one last chance to prevent the deployment of a harmful surveillance infrastructure against the most marginalised in our societies.”