The European Union is based on respect for human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law.

Justice is at the very heart of EU policy and it’s important that everybody has either access to it or can’t escape from it.

As criminal activity became more sophisticated in Europe at the end of the 20^th century, so too did the need for cross-border police cooperation to tackle it.

Fugitives often fled to different countries to escape justice and crime gangs used foreign banks to hide the proceeds of their activities. It was also recognised that many crimes – like drug smuggling, people trafficking and terrorism - involved activity in several different countries.

The situation worsened in 1989 after the collapse of communism led to a surge in trans-national crime as organised gangs exploited the lack of proper coordination between international police forces.

Politicians began to look for new ways to tackle the problem and in 1991 German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, proposed a European police agency. Reference was first made to Europol in the Maastricht Treaty the following year.

Europol began working in 1994, initially assisting national police forces with investigations into drugs and later with terrorism, organised crime and other criminal activities.

In 1999 all EU member states ratified the Europol Convention allowing it to begin full activities. The Information Exchange System (Info-Ex) was introduced allowing police forces to share data on crime and criminals more efficiently.

The EU’s Council of Ministers can extend Europol’s jurisdiction by unanimous decision and member states can now cooperate in a large number of areas including illegal immigration, counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in human beings, radioactive substances or motor vehicles.

Europol collects and publishes information supplied by member states on offences falling within its jurisdiction. It has no prosecution powers, which are reserved for national police forces.

Europol has its headquarters in The Hague and member states fund its budget directly. Its management board consists of one representative of each member state and one representative of the European Commission with non-voting status.

Europol operates under the political responsibility of the European Council of Ministers acting under the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs policy.

In Ireland An Garda Síochána contribute and obtain information via Europol with other European police forces on a regular basis.

This has helped prevent crime and bring many criminals to justice and the information exchanged has also proved useful in identifying trends in criminal activity.

The sharing of information through Europol led to convictions and the disruption of a major criminal gang involved in an ATM bank card skimming scam in 2008.

Other successes include a joint investigation between Ireland and Romania which resulted in the prosecution of four people in Romania for trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

Gardai also actively participated in ‘Operation Baghdad’, an investigation targeted at Iraqi traffickers across Europe which led to 75 arrests.

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) was established in 1999 to combat trans-national organised crime, fraud and corruption within the EU.

The office has a special independent status allowing it to carry out administrative anti-fraud investigations on behalf of EU citizens without official interference.

OLAF has the authority to carry out on-the-spot checks and inspections in member states to protect the financial interests of the European Communities against fraud and other irregularities.

It can also carry out administrative investigations inside the institutions of the EU in the event of suspected fraud harmful to the budget of the EU.

In November 2009 investigations by OLAF led to the conviction of former UK MEP Tom Wise for misuse of EU funds. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

OLAF works with officials in Ireland in the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and An Garda Síochána.

In October 2009 authorities in Ireland seized over 120 million contraband cigarettes in Greenore Port, County Louth, in what is thought to be the largest single such seizure ever made in the EU.

OLAF is currently co-ordinating the international aspects of the follow-up investigations which are now taking place.

That operation followed another success in March 2009 when one of the principal suspects in a six year investigation by OLAF into international cigarette smuggling across nine EU states, including Ireland, was indicted by courts in the USA.

Roman Vidal from Florida later pleaded guilty to charges relating to the smuggling of cigarettes out of the United States and into various European Union countries in order to avoid paying more than $6.5 million in customs and tax duties. He received a two-year prison sentence and was also ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution to the EU.

In September 2010 a second suspect was arrested and indicted in the United States for his alleged part in smuggling hundreds of millions of cigarettes from the Port of Miami into the EU. OLAF estimated that the alleged evasion of customs duties and taxes may have amounted to approximately €30 million.

In 2008 the Irish Revenue Commissioners assisted OLAF in a case against cigarette smugglers operating via Singapore and help from Irish Revenue officials has helped in protecting the European Community's own resources from fraud.

The idea of having an arrest warrant that could be enforced throughout the EU was first agreed by member states at the Laeken Summit in December 2001 and Ireland introduced the European Arrest Warrant Act in 2003.

The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is a powerful tool in the battle against cross-border crime as the warrant allows EU nations to seek the return of a person living abroad who is wanted for criminal activity.

The EAW means anybody due to stand trial, facing sentence after conviction, or a prison escapee can’t avoid justice by fleeing to another EU country.

EU legislation ensures that there can’t be any political interference in extradition procedures meaning that the execution of an EAW is simply a judicial process.

EU countries also can’t refuse to surrender their own nationals and the dual criminality principal, which meant extradition sometimes couldn’t take place unless the alleged crime was an offence in both countries, has been abolished.

Guarantees on individual rights are included in EAW legislation and all member states and national courts have to respect the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and to ensure that it is respected.

A lawyer, and if necessary an interpreter, have to be provided to anybody arrested and there are certain grounds for refusing to surrender a person.

The European Arrest Warrant works within all the different legal traditions in Europe.