In the past few decades, the EU and individual Member States, including the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, for example, have greatly expanded the legal framework and organizational infrastructure for police cooperation. However, the changes have only to a small extent been designed with public order policing in mind, although such cooperation is increasingly necessary, particularly in densely populated border regions. Recent conventions, such as the Treaty of Prüm, include provisions for cross-border cooperation in maintaining public order, for operating in foreign territory to assist the public in cases of imminent danger and for setting up joint traffic checkpoints, for instance. However, for specific elements of public order policing, such as providing immediate assistance to the public in non-life-threatening circumstances or investigating cases of petty crime, there is no provision made or the existing provisions are impractical.