Supranational Activism as an Assertion Process? The Case of Europol

Abstract

The European Police Office has been the object of impressive developments since its creation in 1995, with notably some supranational trends like its transformation into a European agency in 2010. This dynamic raises questions on the influence of Europol itself in this process which tends to favour its expansion and confer it broader resources. This leads therefore to the question to what degree Europol displays supranational activism. To this end, this article uses some principal-agent considerations while considering that Europol has two specific features which could potentially contribute to the specific institutional trajectory of the Office: multiple principals and an agenda-setting function. Consequently, Europol’s principals’ heterogeneous preferences and its capability of defining problems, notably through its Directors, have enabled Europol to act as a policy entrepreneur to project its preferences and its representations for to strengthen itself. However, Europol can be conceived as a supranationalist opportunist as it punctually aspires for supranationalisation, taking care not to antagonize the Member States which remain its main contributors.