Whereas a draft of this Order has been laid before Parliament in accordance with section 10 of the International Organisations Act 1968(1) (“the Act”) and has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament:

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the powers conferred on Her by section 1 of the Act(2) or otherwise in Her Majesty vested, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:—

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the European Police Office (Legal Capacities) Order 1996.

(2) It shall come into force on the date, to be notified in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes, on which the Convention based on Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, on the Establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention)(3) enters into force in respect of the United Kingdom.

2.  The European Police Office (“Europol”) is an organisation of which the United Kingdom and other sovereign Powers are members.

3.  Europol shall have the legal capacities of a body corporate.

N. H. Nicholls
Clerk of the Privy Council

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order confers the legal capacities of a body corporate on the European Police Office (“Europol”). This legal capacity is conferred in accordance with Article 26 of the Convention based on Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, on the Establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention) (Cm 3050). The Order will enable Her Majesty’s Government to give effect to Article 26 of that Convention, and will come into force on the date on which the Convention enters into force in respect of the United Kingdom.


(1)
1968 c. 48.

(2)
as amended by section 1 of the International Organisations Act 1981 (c. 9).

(3)
Cm. 3050.