Europol’s cooperation with private parties to address the dissemination of illegal online content – the beginning of something new?

This article assesses Europol’s evolved cooperation with private parties. Before the 2022 amending Europol Regulation, exchanging personal data between Europol and private parties proved difficult. Nonetheless, Europol has often been criticised for its cooperation with private parties. The 2022 amending Europol Regulation expands Europol’s competencies to cooperate with private parties. This article analyses Europol’s evolved autonomy and discretion vis-à-vis Member States, private parties and Union legislator, and Europol’s evolved accountability and transparency concerning these competencies. The 2022 amending Europol regulation introduces several innovations: exchanging personal data with private parties without significant restrictions and requesting data from private parties via Member States’ national units. Before the 2022 amending Europol Regulation, Europol’s autonomy and discretion were limited. Since then, Europol has significant autonomy and discretion regarding Member States, private parties and the Union legislature. Although criticism existed, and still exists, the accountability forums and transparency measures are generally sufficient to counter Europol’s autonomy and discretion.