Brexit: UK admits it will leave Europol and fears 'major drop' in crime-fighting co-operation

Home Office admits Britain will lose its seat on Europol’s management board – despite arguing it was 'critical' that co-operation is 'not weakened'

The UK has given up on remaining a member of Europol after Brexit and fears a “major drop” in co-operation in fighting cross-border crime.

The Home Office has admitted Britain will lose its seat on the organisation’s management board – despite previously arguing it was “critical” that its role is “not weakened”.

The aim now was to find a “workable way of ensuring we do not see a major drop in interactions with Europol”, an official told a committee of MPs.

The inquiry, by the Commons home affairs committee, was told that Europol was essential to tackling everything from terrorism to organised crime, trafficking and modern slavery.

Nick Hurd, the policing minister, said the UK still hoped to agree a “special status” with the EU on security cooperation – but admitted he did not know what that was likely to be.

Arguing that was “bleeding obvious”, he said: “We are still in the process of a negotiation, so we don’t know what the outcome of that negotiation will be.”

Alongside him, Rebecca Ellis, head of the Home Office’s European directorate, said it was “clear that will be some changes”.

“We would not expect to be a voting member of the Europol management board, for example.”

And, highlighting the risk of a “major drop” in co-operation, she said: “We will continue to make a case for us to be able to interact in a streamlined fashion.”

The comments are a far cry from the government’s proposals for a “UK-EU security partnership”, issued in May.

It pointed out that Europol, and Eurojust – which allows justice systems to co-operate closely across the EU – “are at heart of the efforts to tackle serious and organised crime and terrorism across Europe”.

The document said: “It is critical that the strength of these bodies are not weakened.

“It is in our mutual interest to protect the capabilities which underpin this co-operation when the UK becomes a European country outside the EU but in a new partnership with it.”

The document said the UK, last year, “contributed over 6000 pieces of information to the Europol serious and organised crime analysis projects” – “more than any other member state”.

“In 2016, UK participated in over 80 coordination meetings at Eurojust, organising over 30 of them ourselves,” it added.

“The UK has the largest Europol liaison bureau of any member state and has seconded experts to a range of analysis projects.”

The EU is offering only a “slightly” better security deal than with other non-EU countries – far short of Theresa May’s dream of a “deep and special partnership”, experts say.

The European Arrest Warrant is also likely to be lost, making the extradition of foreign criminals “slower and more bureaucratic”, with suspects enjoying more “procedural rights”.