Britain will not have to leave Europol, says commission

EU THREATS that Britain would be forced to leave Europol after Brexit were yesterday exposed as posturing, after the European Commission refused to rule out the UK having a continued relationship with the police agency, provided it paid for the privilege.

The admission that Britain could continue to work with Europol, which exchanges crime and counter-terrorism information and intelligence, undermines the hard-line stance struck by Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, at the start of this week’s round of UK-EU talks.

On Monday, Mr Barnier warned that Britain would be forced to leave Europol and that the EU-UK split would weaken British security, in a rebuke to Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who was accused of using Britain’s worldleading police and intelligence services as leverage in negotiations in March.

On Wednesday, the EU’S Security Commissioner said that Britain could pay to be part of Europol, exposing Mr Barnier’s threat as posturing.

Tory MEPS welcomed the softer stance, pointing out that the UK makes a vital contribution to Europol, which is led by a British civil servant, and that it is “strongly in the EU’S interest” that Britain remains a member.

Europe has been hit by a wave of terrorist attacks, which might have been prevented by better intelligence-sharing between EU countries.

Sir Julian King, the UK’S commissioner, said Europol had a series of relationships with countries that aren’t in the EU, such as the US.

“Those close relationships work very well. There will be some financial price but beyond that, I don’t know, we’ll have to see in the context of the negotiation,” he said on BBC 5 live Drive.

The commission refused to rule out the UK having a continued relationship with Europol. Negotiations on Europol will not begin until “sufficient progress” has been made on Ireland, the so-called “Brexit bill” and citizens’ rights.

The sooner agreement was made on those principles, the sooner future security co-operation between the EU and the UK could be addressed, a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.