# Council Decision 2003/170/JHA of 27 February 2003 on the common use of liaison officers posted abroad by the law enforcement agencies of the Member States, Article 1: Definition

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. In this Decision, ‘liaison officer’ means a representative of one of the Member States, posted abroad by a law enforcement agency to one or more third countries or to international organisations to establish and maintain contacts with the authorities in those countries or organisations with a view to contributing to preventing or investigating criminal offences.
In this Decision, ‘ Europol liaison officer ’ means a Europol employee, posted abroad to one or more third countries or to international organisations to enhance the cooperation between the authorities in those countries or organisations and Europol in order to support the Member States, in particular the liaison officers posted abroad by the law enforcement agencies of the Member States, in combating of serious forms of international crime, in particular through the exchange of information.
2. This Decision is without prejudice to Member States' liaison officers' tasks within the framework of their responsibilities and in compliance with national law, national needs, and any more favourable agreements concluded with the host State or the international organisation.
This Decision shall be without prejudice to Europol's and Europol liaison officers' tasks within the framework of the Europol Convention, the arrangements made for the implementation thereof, and cooperation agreements concluded between Europol and the third country or international organisation concerned.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2003/170/article/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2003-170/article-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.