President Puigdemont urges integration of Catalan police with Europol

The Catalan police needs to be integrated with Europol. This is what the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont demanded from the Spanish government on Monday evening. According to Puigdemont, “when Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan police) integrate with full rights with Europol, our country's security will improve.” This has been a long-time demand by the Catalan authorities and police. The European police union EuroCOP also requested it last month in an interview with ACN.

“It is now obvious that the demand makes complete sense,” said the Catalan president. His ministers of home affairs and justice, Joaquim Forn and Carles Mundó, have supported his view over the past few hours. Catalan pro-independence parties ERC and PDeCAT, along with pro-referendum En Comú Podem, made the same call on Monday evening in a meeting involving most of the political parties in the Spanish Parliament. The Spanish minister of home affairs, Juan Ignacio Zoido, promised that the Mossos would have access to Europol “soon”.

Catalonia had been asking for a security meeting with Spain for years

Barcelona had been asking for a bilateral security meeting between the Catalan and Spanish governments for years. One of the big motivations behind holding the meeting was for Madrid to grant the Mossos access to the EU law enforcement agency’s database. The meeting was finally held last month after an eight-year absence. Madrid accepted the demand and pledged that the Mossos would be included in the Spanish antiterrorist body. However, this has not been enforced yet.