Europol is referred to in Article 29 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, as a means of providing citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice.

The idea of a European Police Office was first raised at the Luxembourg European Council on 28 and 29 June 1991. The plan then was to set up a new body which would provide a structure for developing police cooperation between Member States in preventing and combating serious forms of international organised crime. Provision for the Office was made in the Treaty of Maastricht, and it began its activities on 3 January 1994 as the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU). This initially confined its efforts to the fight against drugs, but its terms of reference were gradually extended to other serious crimes.

The Convention establishing Europol was signed in July 1995 and entered into force on 1 October 1998, but only became fully operational on 1 July 1999. Europol took over the activities of the EDU, for example in the areas of drug trafficking, clandestine immigration networks, trafficking in stolen vehicles, trafficking in human beings (including child pornography), counterfeiting currency and falsification of other means of payment, trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances, terrorism and money-laundering.

The Treaty of Amsterdam conferred a number of different tasks on Europol: coordinating and implementing specific investigations conducted by the Member States' authorities, developing specialised expertise in order to help Member States in their investigations into organised crime, and establishing contacts with prosecutors and investigators who specialise in the fight against organised crime.

Europol's role was enhanced in December 2001 when its remit was extended to all forms of international crime as defined in the annex to the Europol Convention. Two more fundamental suggestions were also made, concerning the possibility of giving Europol genuine powers of investigation and ways of exercising democratic control over the Office.

See:

•Area of freedom, security and justice
•Convention (Title VI of the EU Treaty) 
•Fight against drugs
•Fight against international organised crime
•Fight against terrorism
•Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
•Measures to combat money-laundering
•Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters

The following video provides you with the correct English pronunciation of the word "Europol (European Police Office)", to help you become a better English speaker.