“It’s a difficult discussion”: International police and judicial cooperation aimed at combating serious transnational organized crime in the cross-border Meuse–Rhine Euregion of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany

Globalization presents an important opportunity for police and justice officials around the world to cooperate with one another to bring offenders of serious transnational organized crime to justice. Numerous trends and developments are emerging in Europe—especially in the cross-border Meuse–Rhine Euregion, where the three countries of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany meet. Indeed, the police and justice officials of the Meuse–Rhine Euregion are acknowledged as the “pioneers” of routine cross-border police and judicial cooperation, and due to various factors, their work is arguably among the most long-standing, advanced, and intense in the world. Despite an expanding legal framework, however, operational problems still arise in practice. Therefore, one question becomes: how may international police and judicial cooperation in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion be improved? The Meuse–Rhine Euregion frames this multi-site case study, which uses the Organizational Behavior (OB) approach to examine the state-of-the-art. Specifically, the analysis of scholarly literature, international law, and in-depth personal interviews with 44 English-speaking police detectives, senior police commanders, prosecutors, and examining magistrates from 21 organizations across the three countries in this Euregion provides the data to answer this study’s four main research questions, namely: (1) What is the status quo with respect to international police and judicial cooperation aimed at combating serious transnational organized crime in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion, according to police and justice officials?; (2) How does the process of international police and judicial cooperation aimed at combating serious transnational organized crime in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion operate in practice, according to police and justice officials?; (3) What variables affect (facilitate/impede) international police and judicial cooperation aimed at combating serious transnational organized crime in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion, according to police and justice officials?; and (4) How can international police and judicial cooperation aimed at combating serious transnational organized crime in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion be improved? The findings of this study may help improve international police and judicial cooperation in the Meuse–Rhine Euregion, and inspire similar cooperative efforts around the world.