The disappearance of confidential files of top police officials has caused a crisis at Europol, the European Union's police agency.
According to the agency's internal note, which the "Politiko" portal had access to, and discussions with current and former employees, those data, which are kept under lock and key at the Europol headquarters in The Hague, disappeared last September, and among the missing documents are the personal files of the executive the director of Europol Catherine de Bol and other high-ranking officials.
"On September 6, 2023, the Europol administration was informed that the personal files of several Europol staff members had disappeared," the note states.
"Politico" reports that agency staff are trying to determine how Europe's central law enforcement agency got into such chaos.
"Given Europol's role as a law enforcement agency, the disappearance of staff members' personal files represents a serious breach of security and personal data," said the note, which was shared on the internal messaging system and dated September 18.
The Brussels portal reminds that Europol is one of the largest EU agencies, coordinating major international investigations and operations with national police authorities and partners such as Interpol and the American FBI.
Agency staff are trying to figure out how Europe's central law enforcement agency got into such a mess
Officials involved in the incident told Politiko that some of the missing files reappeared when a citizen found them left in a public place in The Hague and took them to the local police station.
HR files can contain information about an officer's job application, relevant training, dates of birth, marital status, current address and other regular information kept by HR, one of the officials said.
After the incident, the head of human resources at Europol, Massimiliano Bettin, was placed on administrative leave. Betin sent "Politik" a statement in which he stated that he could not comment on the case.
The portal writes that Europol's confidential printed HR files are kept locked in a safe, in a room restricted to personnel with special authorizations. Very few people know the code to the safe, said one of the officials directly involved in the procedure. It is not yet clear how the files were taken.
Bettin, who was a senior official in the Italian police, has been the head of HR at Europol since 2016. The agency has more than 1.400 employees.
One theory is that the files may have been taken to harm Bettin, in the context of internal conflicts at the agency, according to officials.
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has also been notified of the incident, as have the staff members whose files have gone missing, the internal document said.
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