For a practitioner (police, magistrate, etc.) investigating drug trafficking for example or needing judicial details in relation to mutual legal assistance, the field of police and judicial cooperation is very crowded with little help provided to find your way around, especially in trans-national cases. Indeed, many instruments of cooperation have seen the light in Europe, such as Interpol, Europol, Eurojust, the liaison magistrates, the European Arrest Warrant, Schengen and the European Judicial Network. However, are they all necessary and do practitioners know how to use them? Do practitioners know what is available? Do we need more, and where shall we stop? Furthermore, what are the perspectives for the future? Is a supranational body or a European Public Prosecutor conceivable?

Whether this proliferation of instruments and agencies is useful and facilitates cooperation between law enforcement authorities is a debate of interest which will be explored in this article.