The fourth meeting of the Law Enforcement Working Party (LEWP) was held on 22 February, where priority issues for the Portuguese Presidency in the area of police cooperation were discussed, such as security and protection of public spaces, with presentations made by INTERPOL, RAILPOL and AIRPOL. Member States were also presented with the first draft Council Conclusions on sport-related violence, which the LEWP intends to bring forward for adoption at the June 2021 JHA Council.
Still within the PPEU priorities, the conclusions of the Chiefs of Police Working Group, coordinated by EUROPOL, on lessons learned for police cooperation and new criminal phenomena arising from the COVID 19 pandemic were presented. The presentations were made by EUROPOL Deputy Executive Director, Jürgen Ebner, and Deputy Director General of the Italian police, Vittorio Rizzi.
The recast of the EUROPOL Regulation was also discussed, notably the proposal enabling EUROPOL to insert data in the Schengen Information System.