As from July 1st until the end of December 2010 Belgium takes over the Council Presidency of the European Union. Increasingly the police in the European member states become implicated by transnational police developments. Moreover, for the past two decades police cooperation at the European level has experienced an important process of institutionalization. The relevance of both developments is far-reaching, but many challenging questions are nevertheless left unanswered. Therefore the editorial board of the (originally Belgian) Journal of Police Studies thought it was a good idea to consider this Belgian presidency as an opportunity to present a special Issue of this journal which focuses on the broad, but multi-facetted and fascinating topic of ‘Policing in Europe’...