They were supposed to be under lock and key, in a secure storage room deep inside Europol's headquarters in The Hague.
But a clutch of highly sensitive files containing the personal information of top law enforcement executives went missing last summer.
Europe's law enforcement agency has been mired in a whodunit ever since.
According to an internal agency note seen by POLITICO, and conversations with current and former staff, the hardcopy personnel files of Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle and other senior officials leaked sometime before September.
"On Sep. 6, 2023, the Europol Directorate was informed that personal paper files of several Europol staff members had disappeared," read the note. When officials checked all the agency's records, it discovered "additional missing files," it added.
The incident has been the talk of the agency based in The Hague, with staff exchanging notes over how the files went missing — and, above all, trying to figure out how Europe's central law enforcement authority got itself into such a mess.
"Given Europol's role as law enforcement authority, the disappearance of personal files of staff members constitutes a serious security and personal data breach incident," the note, shared on its internal message board system and dated Sep. 18, said.
www.politico.eu
