The new agreement allows Europol and Ecuadorian police to share personal and operational data in the fight against organised crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and over two dozen other serious offences
April 15th, 2026 — The EU has formalised a law enforcement cooperation agreement with Ecuador, published today as 2026/827 and 2026/828. The first document is the agreement itself. The second is the Council Decision formally concluding it on the Union’s behalf. Together, they create a binding legal framework for data exchange between Europol and Ecuador’s two designated competent authorities: the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
The agreement covers 30 categories of serious crime, from drug trafficking and terrorism to cybercrime, corruption, environmental offences, and war crimes. Both personal and non-personal data can be transferred under its terms, though all transfers remain voluntary and subject to strict conditions on purpose limitation and onward sharing.
Data protection is a central pillar. Individuals whose data is shared retain rights of access, correction, and deletion, as well as the right to judicial redress. Sensitive categories, such as biometric, genetic, health, or politically sensitive data, face stricter conditions. All data must be deleted after three years unless a documented decision justifies keeping it.
The agreement also prohibits fully automated decisions based solely on shared data, including profiling that produces legal effects without human review. Ecuador must designate an independent supervisory authority with real enforcement powers to oversee compliance.
The Council Decision entered into force on 30 March 2026, the date of its adoption.
This Content Is For Members Only
From recommendation to ratification: a three-year process
This agreement did not emerge quickly. The Commission first recommended opening negotiations in February 2023, identifying Ecuador as a priority country given the absence of any legal basis for Europol to share personal data with Ecuadorian authorities. The Council authorised the opening of negotiations on 15 May 2023, and talks formally began in June 2023.
The road, however, does not seem to have been entirely smooth, considering that an EU-Ecuador political consultations meeting in mid-2024 specifically noted the need to “rapidly resume negotiations,” suggesting the process had stalled at some point. After three rounds of negotiations and a technical meeting, the lead negotiators reached a preliminary agreement and initialled the draft text on 3 March 2025. The agreement was formally signed on 23 September 2025, with the concluding Decision adopted by the Council on 30 March 2026 following European Parliament consent.
The prior, limited working arrangement
Before this agreement, a working arrangement between the two was in place since October 2023, and Ecuador had deployed a liaison officer to Europol. This 2023 arrangement enabled cooperation on non-personal data and strategic intelligence, under which Europol and Ecuadorian authorities cooperated to seize 80 tons of drugs and make 36 arrests in March 2025. This agreement nevertheless suffered from a fundamental constraint, as it provided no legal basis for exchanging personal data. This new agreement fills that gap.
Ecuador in a broader Latin American push
The Council had authorised the opening of negotiations for similar agreements with Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru in parallel with Ecuador, with the agreement with Brazil being signed on 5 March 2025. The Ecuador agreement should therefore be read as part of a deliberate EU strategy to build a network of law enforcement data-sharing channels across Latin America, a region the Commission explicitly identifies as the primary source of cocaine entering Europe. One must note that, according to the EU Drugs Agency’, the’s latest report on drug supply indicates a substantial increase in the smuggling of cocaine into Europe in the latest years, contextualising the Commission’s general push towards enhanced enforcement cooperation with Latin America.
Within this framework, one must understand Ecuador as a key element in drug-smuggling logistics, as the country’s ports (particularly Guayaquil) have become a major transshipment hub for cocaine heading to Europe, operated by transnational networks with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels. The lack of control of Ecuador’s enforcement bodies was made evident when it declared an internal armed conflict back in early 2024. For Europol, therefore, the operational value of a data-sharing channel with Ecuadorian authorities is primarily about tracking cocaine flows and the criminal networks behind them, not just domestic Ecuadorian security.
What the agreement does not do
The agreement does not create joint operations or give Europol any executive powers on Ecuadorian soil, nor does it replace existing mutual legal assistance treaties between Ecuador and individual EU Member States. Further transfers of Europol-sourced data by Ecuador to third countries require Europol’s prior explicit consent, and Europol can only grant it if an adequacy decision or equivalent legal basis exists for that onward transfer. Denmark, which sits outside the Europol framework under Protocol 22, is not bound by this agreement.
