Faced with a serious crisis is Europol which demonstrates problems in its security due to the disappearance of sensitive files of its top officials.

In particular, as POLITICO reports, a series of highly sensitive EU police service files containing personal information of top law enforcement officers disappeared last summer.

The files were reportedly locked away in a secure warehouse inside Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, the report claims.

According to an internally circulated agency memo seen by POLITICO, as well as conversations with current and former officials, the hard-copy personnel files of Europol’s executive director, Catherine De Bolle, and other senior officials were leaked shortly before September.

“On September 6, 2023, the Europol Directorate was informed that the paper personal files of several members of its staff,” the memo read. When officials checked all the agency’s records, they discovered additional records were missing.

The incident has been at the center of debate at the Hague-based department, with staff exchanging notes about how the records were lost — and, crucially, trying to understand how Europe’s central law enforcement agency came to be faced with such a mess.

“Given Europol’s role as a law enforcement agency, the disappearance of staff members’ personal files constitutes a serious breach of security and personal data,” said the note, shared on its internal messaging platform system and dated 18 September.

Europol is one of the largest organizations of the European Union. It coordinates major international investigations and operations in collaboration with national police authorities and partners such as Interpol and the United States FBI.

POLITICO spoke to four current and former Europol officials with knowledge of the incident. Some of the missing files resurfaced when a citizen found them abandoned in a public space in The Hague and handed them over to a local police station, the four officials said.

It was not immediately clear how long they had been missing or why they had been taken from inside the agency, they said.

In response to questions from POLITICO, The Hague police spokesman Steven van Satten said: “The Hague police became involved in certain details related to an ongoing internal Europol investigation.”

The personnel files were those of Europol’s executive director De Bolle and three of her deputy directors, Jürgen Ebner, Andrei Lințǎ and Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, according to the testimony of three of the four officials.

HR records can contain information about an employee’s job application, related education, dates of birth, marital status, dependents, current address and other information stored by HR, one of the officials said.

Following the incident, the agency’s head of human resources, Massimiliano Bettin, was placed on administrative leave, the four officials said.

The internal Europol memo said that, “within this context, the head of the HR unit will be unavailable until further notice” and “the head of the administration department will ensure business continuity for the management of the HR unit”.

An email sent by POLITICO to Bettin’s email address at Europol received an automated reply, which read “thank you for your message, I’m unavailable. I don’t have access to my emails.” Bettin’s LinkedIn page says he is “applying” for a new job.

Europol’s sensitive paper HR files are kept under lock and key in a safe, in a room with limited staff access. Very few people know the code to the safe, said one of the officials familiar with the case. It is unclear how the files were leaked.

According to one theory, the files could have been obtained to harm Bettin, amid infighting within the agency, officials said.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has also been informed of the incident, as have staff members whose files are involved in the leak case, the internal memo said.

In a statement to POLITICO, the EDPS said he could not comment “at this stage on ongoing cases.”