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The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (the ‘EPPO’) necessarily processes personal data in order to fulfil its mission; As such, it falls squarely within the European Union (EU) data protection regulatory landscape. However, because the EU data protection regulatory landscape itself is currently found at a crossroads, an analysis of the EPPO data protection model may be twofold: First, placing it within the proper cross-organization dialogue currently taking place on the future regulatory model of personal data processing for law enforcement purposes carried out at EU level. Second, at an EPPO-specific level, whereby the actual data protection regime afforded to it may be assessed. This article purports to elaborate upon the above two data protection dimensions of EPPO personal data processing activities: It presents considerations and policy options during the lawmaking period that resulted in the establishment of the EPPO, it analyses the data protection regime ultimately awarded to it and attempts to, critically, place the EPPO data protection model within its proper operational and legislative environment.

Gary Becker died on 3 May 2014. He was an economist, Noble prize winner and author. He was declared by Milton Friedman as the “the greatest social scientist who has lived and worked in the last half century”. His work focused on economics and sociology, and through the lenses of these disciplines he looked at many subjects, including crime and the criminal law. His crucial finding that crime is the sum of rational actors still has a lot to off er to criminologists and practitioners working in the area of criminal law. This editorial pays tribute to his analytical spirit by embracing it when assessing the EU legislation to combat human trafficking.