The committee adopted the report by Martine ROURE (PES, FR) amending - under the consultation procedure - the proposed UK initiative on amending Decision 2003/170/JHA on the common use of liaison officers posted abroad by the law enforcement agencies of the Member States. The main amendments were as follows:
- in order to prevent pointless overlap of work, and with a view to fostering a spirit of mutual support and cooperation, Europol liaison officers should be responsible for coordinating the work of the liaison officers seconded by the Member States in cases where there are several of them within one and the same country or organisation;
- information collected by liaison offers seconded by the Member States should "immediately and directly" be forwarded to Europol;
- liaison officers seconded by the Member States should be instructed to "act more globally, taking into account the EU interest";
- where liaison officers seconded by the Member States collect any information on serious criminal threats to another Member State, they should forward that information to their respective national authorities and Europol if the threatened Member State is not represented by its own liaison officer in the country or organisation concerned and to the liaison officers of the Member State in question and Europol if that Member State is represented;
- lastly, a series of drafting amendments sought to include a mention of the Europol Convention at various points in the text where reference is made to national law, given that the Convention has not yet been incorporated into all Member States' domestic legislation.