In the 1930s, Bonnie and Clyde seemed unstoppable. Their gang was infamous for a series of brazen bank robberies, zig-zagging across state lines to exploit rules that prevented police officers from following them into another jurisdiction.
The United States was confronted with a problem. Bank robbers could cross borders, but law enforcement officials could not. By the 1930s, automobiles had become widespread and criminals were more mobile than ever before.
America found a solution in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Agents of the FBI had federal jurisdiction, allowing them to investigate and pursue felons wherever they went.
Today, Europe faces an even more mobile threat. Transnational terrorism and criminal gangs exploit freedom of movement within the European Union to evade capture, and the good guys often struggle to keep up. Would improved intelligence sharing be enough? Or does Europe need its own version of the FBI to identify and dismantle cross-border crime and terror networks?
What do our readers think? We had comments come in from Alexander and Betti on intelligence sharing and a “European FBI”. To get a response, we put them to Lukas Mandl, an Austrian MEP who sits with the centre-right European People’s Party and is Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence. You can see his response in the video at the top of this post.
Would a ‘European FBI’ help prevent terror attacks? Or is such a thing politically impossible? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
IMAGE CREDITS: CC / Flickr – USAG – Humphreys
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Oh yes first task deal with those “terrorist” people like nationalist, indipendentism, antiUe. No thanks.We already got the ministry of truth we don’t need the ministry of peace and love too.
Start by clothe all the fiscal paradises first, make a justice for people not for money, destroy the wall on the border of Europe, be equal between all refugies, stop the Frontex,Give money to people not to the military organisation or group… Stop to Be afraid, open your eyes the world can be better if you do something for
Enough of supranational entities
I fo think we dhould stop all migrations from muslim countries except for qualified peoples.. But i do believe that pdtro manarchies corrupted many european politicians and this is why this migration and terrorism which is closely related to islamism is out of control
And one European justice system?….slippery slope!
I have a better idea – stop letting in terrorists in the first place!
Oh, you’re pro abortion?
And turn EU into a police state… like in USA!?That’s a good idea! Only this way EU may force and subdue the people who will stand against them.When it comes to “terror attacks”, seems like there are very few since the pan-demic, I wonder why that is !
The problem is that terrorism is not a problem for the whole EU. It’s a problem for the Western part of the EU because of their politicians devastating policies throughout the years. If the Eastern EU countries suffer It’s because of the Western influence. I don’t see why Eastern Europe should be a subject subject some Western governed police organisation because the Western politicians can’t handle their own problems.
Europol
Yes, why not? It looks like the world gets more dangerous than ever! Now the criminals organizations get also richer…
Europol? Already exists!
probably an extension of Europol would be an idea.
Only to be used against EU nationals and political parties that don’t follow the rules.
Can Europe not imitate other and think of something more innovative? As we can see the US is already in a mess and demonstrating hyper-unilateralism and growing aggressive. Imitating the US would only discourage popular support of the new organization. There are so many “brilliant” people in Europe, cannot you think of something avoiding giving negative image to a new organization for collective security? Europe ought to walk its own road and be sovereign and independent.