Would a stronger Europol be able to prevent terrorist attacks and stop cyber-jihadists in their tracks? Chief Rob Wainwright anwers.

Counter-terrorism: what role for Europol?

The security situation in Europe has  changed dramatically in recent years.

In the first three months of 2015 alone,  154 people were arrested.

Never ever will I give my vote  to an encryption ban throughout the EU.

How do the Member States  coordinate their response to cyber attacks?

As the dark clouds of terrorism  stalk Europe’s shadow

EuroparlTV sat down with Rob Wainwright,  the Director of Europol -

the Union’s combatant  for fighting serious crime and terrorism.

Mr Wainwright, thank you  for joining us on EuroparlTV.

Can you talk to us about  the role of Europol?

Obviously you weren't set up  to work in terrorism,

but your mandate  has changed over the years.

So how effective are you  as a tool in countering terrorism?

For over ten years now,  and even before 9/11, actually,

we've had a mandate  on counter-terrorism as well.

And that's certainly grown over  the last 10 years, and again this year

since the awful attacks in Paris  and in other European locations.

So Europol is there to help the police  to identify criminals and terrorists

and to coordinate operations to prevent  attacks such as we've seen this year.

How much access to information  do Member States allow you?

Well it's more operational  than administrative,

because we're in the frontline of exchanging  intelligence about ongoing cases

to identify suspects and  to help coordinate some operations.

In the wake of the Paris attacks,  for example,

we were able to share with the French  authorities pretty good intelligence leads,

particularly about  the financing of those attacks

immediately after the incidents involved.

But yes, Europol is not a police force,  we are not an FBI,

we don't arrest people,  we don't have those executive powers.

We're there only to provide operational  support, intelligence support,

and that's something that we've focused on  in our field of countering terrorism.

There are people who say that post Paris  attacks your role could evolve even more.

In the meeting we just had  at the Parliament, you did mention that

Europol is setting up a counter-terrorism  unit to help Member States.

Could you tell us about  how your role could evolve?

We need international organisations  like Europol

and we're focusing Europol's efforts  on providing that

so that we can monitor terrorist financing,  flows of illicit firearms in particular,

around these people that are  going to and from Syria and Iraq.

Some MEPs were criticising you  in the meeting for blurring lines

between what is a national competence  and what should be Europol's role.

We are focused on  providing the maximum support,

of course within our legal mandate -  we don't overstep that.

But what about the rise of cyber jihadists?  We saw them taking over TV5Monde.

I'm a bit surprised that we haven't seen  an even greater terrorist dimension online,

because the range of attacks,  the criminal capability

that we have seen developed on  the internet in the last two years,

are frankly off the scale in terms of  how difficult it is for us to stop that

from really damaging our economies  and our people's safety.

Now terrorist groups,  including Islamic State, are catching up.

They're using  some of the same techniques.

They're still pretty rudimentary, actually.

There's a long way still to go,  but I think we are at a stage

where we're very concerned about  the possibility of a cyber terrorist attack.

We know that agencies cannot  track every suspected or known terrorist.

But how do we stop people  falling through the cracks?

Because we heard after the Paris attacks

that the French authorities knew one of the  Kouachi brothers had travelled to Yemen.

It is really difficult. You're dealing with  a large community of potential terrorists,

of people who may or may not  have gone to Syria and Iraq,

who may or may not have been  to other conflict zones.

In the case of Paris, French authorities,  based on the available information they had,

had de-prioritised the case, because they  hadn't come to notice for almost 10 years.

That says something also about the limits  that the police and security services have

We can't monitor thousands and thousands  of people at the same time.

Maybe we don't even want that  in our liberal democracies.

So this is very much about  using the best possible intelligence

And part of that is about effective  information-sharing across borders.

Because we have a better  legal mechanism, better expertise,

stronger data protection, data security  controls here at the European Union.

Mr Wainwright, thank you so much for  joining us on EuroparlTV. -My pleasure.