The European Commission has proposed to establish the European Cybercrime Centre within the European Police Agency, Europol. Under its current mandate, Europol already deals with computer crime. However, given the current limited resources, Europol cannot, for example, efficiently gather information from various sources as the new Centre will, nor does Europol have the capacity to respond to queries from law enforcement authorities, the judiciary and the private sector.

The Centre, while to be placed in Europol, will pursue a shared cross-community approach to tackling cybercrime. Via its Programme Board, the know-how of important partners such as Eurojust, CEPOL, ENISA and Member States as represented by the European Cybercrime Task Force, would be brought in. Another novelty key to the Centre's success will be the exchange of information with partners beyond the law enforcement community. Since cyberspace and the Internet's infrastructure are for the most part owned by the private sector, only a shared, cross-community approach will bring enduring results in the fight against cybercrime.