Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser is meeting today with officials in the Netherlands to discuss how international cooperation can be further improved, above all to fight organised crime and drug trafficking. She is meeting with David van Weel, Minister of Justice and Security; Judith Uitermark, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations; and Carola Schouten, Mayor of Rotterdam. Federal Minister Faeser will also visit Europol, the European Union agency for law enforcement cooperation, in The Hague.

The visit focuses on the specific action needed to keep cocaine from being smuggled into the European Union and to protect the EU and its member states even better against organised crime. This requires further intensifying the close cooperation within the European Ports Alliance and the Coalition of European countries against serious and organised crime. Information-sharing between the police and customs authorities plays an especially important role in this effort. Federal Minister Faeser, Minister van Weel and Mayor Schouten are touring the port of Rotterdam to see for themselves the measures in place there. Federal Minister Faeser and Minister van Weel reaffirmed their commitment to the joint declaration of intent to increase bilateral police cooperation which they signed in December.

Federal Minister Faeser said: “The international drug cartels are turning up the pressure on Europe. Drugs smuggled into Europe destroy people’s lives and generate huge profits for organised crime. Drug gangs create an incredible spiral of violence. That is why we want to achieve stronger and internationally coordinated action against trafficking in cocaine and other drugs. We need the most investigative pressure possible on drug traffickers. Our Coalition against serious and organised crime and our European Ports Alliance are the right response. The only way to fight international crime effectively is by working together. My Dutch partners and I strongly agree on that. We must and will increase our bilateral cooperation too, also in order to take robust action against the violence these groups use. That is why we signed a joint declaration of intent in December which we are now putting into practice.

“The European police office Europol also plays a very important role in fighting this crime – it is the cornerstone of our European security architecture. It is in our shared interest to make Europol even stronger, especially in the area of end-to-end encryption and cyber crime, drug crime and terrorism. Europol must become the information hub for European police forces. We are working on that together.”

David van Weel, Minister of Justice and Security, said: “Organised crime is an ongoing and international problem that we can only overcome by working together. I am very happy that Federal Minister Faeser is here in the Netherlands today and that we are further intensifying our cooperation in the port of Rotterdam. We are actively sharing with other ports, such as Antwerp and Hamburg, the experience we have gained here in fighting drug trafficking. Criminals are adaptable, so we must always keep a step ahead of them. If we only do that in Rotterdam, then the criminals will go elsewhere. By sharing information and taking joint action, we are making it more difficult for them to operate anywhere in Europe.”

These talks with partners in the Netherlands are also focused on improving bilateral cross-border cooperation, for example to fight organised crime groups from the Netherlands which are increasingly active in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, particularly in drug trafficking. Good cooperation has already led to a reduction in the number of attacks on cash machines involving explosives. Both sides want to continue their collaboration. On 12 December 2024, Federal Minister Faeser and Minister van Weel signed a joint declaration of intent to intensify bilateral police cooperation. The joint declaration provides a special legal basis for strengthening operational cross-border cooperation between German and Dutch special units in particular. This cooperation serves in particular to fight terrorism and organised crime. Bilateral police cooperation between Germany and the Netherlands has been governed since 2005 by the Enschede Treaty; the two countries are now examining whether to expand or amend this treaty. Closer cooperation between the Dutch and German intelligence services is another topic of discussion during the visit.

After these meetings, Federal Minister Faeser will visit Europol. Particular attention will be given to the plans to give Europol a stronger mandate and double its human resources, as announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Federal Minister Faeser is in favour of Europol becoming a truly operational police agency, which however will not act on its own but always in conjunction with the national police authorities.