Abu Dhabi: UAE and Europol on Wednesday signed an agreement to enhance international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organised crime.

Lt Gen Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, signed the agreement with Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, in Abu Dhabi.

The agreement, approved by the Council of the European Union earlier this year, concludes the successful negotiations between the two parties on how to effectively join forces in fighting terrorism and all forms of organised crime, including human trafficking, drug abuse and money laundering. approved by the Council of the European Union earlier this year.

This new level of cooperation will be important for tackling priority crime areas affecting both the UAE and the European Union.

The Europol chief said: “This agreement represents a significant step forward in our cooperation. The United Arab Emirates is the first state in the region to have such an agreement with Europol, confirming the importance of the partnership and our joint commitment in fighting serious organised crime affecting the safety and security of the UAE and the European Union.”

Strategic agreements make it possible for the two parties to exchange strategic and technical information and provide training. They do not allow for the exchange of personal data.

Wainwright told Gulf News this is a very important moment for the UAE and European Union in their common fight against terrorism and international crime.

“This is an important agreement that I signed with Shaikh Saif today, which allows Europol and the UAE authorities to cooperate much more closely in fighting all forms of crime and terrorism. So a good day, I think, for us, and a bad day for those criminals and terrorists who are operating between our two regions.”

On the scope of UAE-Europol intelligence sharing, the Europol chief said “we have to build up the level of cooperation so my priority is to establish the contact to make sure that our expert teams meet on a regular basis to share information, share their knowledge of common interests in fighting terrorism, money laundering, other forms of financial crimes, for example. So I agreed with Shaikh Saif today and representatives from the Ministry of Interior that our officers will meet regularly in the coming months and also what it allows is for the authorities of the UAE to input into the common network of information-sharing operational coordination that we have at Europol.

“Now we have 700 agencies from around Europe and other countries that are connected on Europol’s information platform. Now UAE will join this platform and in doing so becomes the first country in this region to become a partner at Europol.”

On de-radicalisation, Wainwright said he talked about the common threats of terrorism that “we faced and how our respective experiences in this region and in Europe of how young men and women are vulnerable to radicalisation”.

“Shaikh Saif shared with me his views on this and his experience and we have a particular problem in Europe. Thousands of people have become radicalised and are travelling to Syria and Iraq. We will share this experience as much as possible, exchange information about fighting terrorism.

“This agreement allows for the exchange of experience and best practices at the first level. It will not lead directly to sharing of intelligence as you describe it because this is the first level of cooperation that we are establishing with UAE authorities today. But we have the intention of bringing the UAE authorities into our wider network. I expect them to use that to exchange information with other countries in our network, and we have possibilities next year when Europol legal framework changes, to expand the range of information-sharing opportunities.”