Europol Information System: Controversial police database turns 20 years old

A comprehensive database in which police authorities of EU member states store data on suspects, convicts, or even potential future criminals in the field of serious and organized crime, including terrorism, has been existing for 20 years. The Europol Information System (EIS) is the central database of The Hague Police Office for criminal police information and intelligence. Initially, Europol was essentially a huge computer system with a few officers and administrators who operated it and fed it with data. This led to criticism from the outset: even at the planning stage of the EIS, it was argued that it would replace manifest controls at borders, for example, with subtle, computer-based surveillance methods.

The first version of the EIS went into operation in 2005. Its predecessor was the Europol computer system (TECS). This was developed by the co-founders of the European Police Office, Jürgen Storbeck and Peter Vowé, two former officials of the Federal Criminal Police Office. Even the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) spoke highly of a “Euro-FBI”, even though it still has no official operational powers today. All those involved were driven by the idea from the outset: Concentrated computer power was needed to provide an answer to organized crime in Europe.

The origin of the EIS goes back to the Europol Convention. After some legal gray areas, this provided the legal basis for the establishment of a “computerized information system” into which the EU member states could enter data directly in accordance with their national procedures. This is supplemented by information from third parties and analysis files created by Europol itself. For 20 years, authorized national units of the EU countries, liaison officers and duly authorized Europol employees have been able to access the mountain of data.

Over 1.7 million entries in the EIS

“The EIS was one of the pioneers of information exchange at European level for law enforcement officers,” says The Hague authority itself, looking back on its beginnings in its anniversary year. The system enabled users to “easily check whether information on a particular person, car, telephone or other object of interest in an investigation was available beyond national or organizational jurisdictions”.

Basically, the EIS continues to function as a reference system based on the “hit/no hit” principle. Authorized people can use it to query whether a correlating data record is available at Europol, police authorities of the member states or cooperation partners such as Interpol. This proves that the person in question has already been investigated there and provides access to this information on request. Names, social security and telephone numbers as well as e-mail and IP addresses can be entered for the search. The directory also includes photographs, DNA data and fingerprints.

“The EIS user community has grown considerably over the years,” explains Europol. In addition, the amount of data processed in the system has also “evolved” so that every investigator in the EU can now access the stored information “more efficiently”. This has led to record retrievals: Well over 14 million searches had already been carried out in 2023. According to the office, “more than 1.7 million data units were available” in 2024.

Big data analyses are hotly contested

After being linked to the Schengen Information System (SIS), the EIS will soon become an important part of a new computer architecture for systematically checking administrative applications from non-Schengen citizens who wish to enter the Schengen area. After many delays, the European Travel Authorization System (ETIAS) is currently scheduled to go live at the end of 2026. The travel applications submitted via this system are to be automatically compared with the EIS data. In the future, similar procedures are planned for visa applicants via the upgraded Visa Information System. In principle, a biometric super database is to be created, which not only data protectionists warned about in advance.

Supervisory authorities have repeatedly criticized the EIS as a kind of “data laundering system” and an excessive hub. According to them, law enforcement authorities could, in case of doubt, “park” more extensive personal dossiers in The Hague than they are allowed to do in the national sphere. In 2020, EU Data Protection Commissioner Wojciech Wiewiórowski complained that Europol investigators had exceeded their powers and acted unlawfully by collecting and analyzing unmanageable amounts of data. Unsuspects such as victims, witnesses, or contact people were thus at risk of being “unlawfully linked to criminal activity throughout the EU”. Nevertheless, Europol's powers are constantly being expanded.

(nen)