This was reported by espreso.tv

The files, which were supposed to be locked in a storage room at Europol's headquarters in The Hague, disappeared last summer. However, the incident became known on September 6, 2023: the Europol directorate was informed about the disappearance of personal documents of several employees. An internal memo from the agency, seen by Politico, says that after officials checked Europol's records, "additional missing files" were discovered.

"Given Europol's role as a law enforcement agency, the disappearance of staff files is a serious incident involving a breach of personal data security and confidentiality," the memo, dated September 18, said.

The publication notes that the leak of sensitive data from officials has triggered a crisis at the agency.

According to the internal memo and conversations Politico had with current and former Europol employees, the personal hard copy files of the EU police agency's executive director, Catherine De Bolle, and other senior officials had disappeared by September of last year.

According to four former and current Europol officers with knowledge of the incident, some of the lost documents were found by a resident of The Hague: they were in a public place. The man brought them to the local police station.

The personal data found belonged to De Bolle and her three deputies: Jürgen Ebner, Andrei Linz and Jean-Philippe LeCouffe.

The missing files may contain information about the official's training, job application, date of birth, address of residence, marital status and other data stored by the HR department, whose head was sent on "administrative leave" after the incident.

Europol is a specialized agency of the European Union that coordinates investigations and operations with national police partners and agencies such as Interpol and the US FBI.

• On November 23 last year, Europol created the Operational Task Force (OTF) to assist in investigations of war crimes committed by the russian federation in Ukraine. The project involves 14 countries.