As part of preparations for cooperation with Britain after its departure from the EU, the Lithuanian government decided on Wednesday to set up a police attaché in the United Kingdom.
According to the government resolution, the UK is home to at least 200,000 Lithuanian nationals and the country's embassy receives a large number of requests from British law enforcement for assistance in identifying people, or with issues surrounding the detention of Lithuanian citizens.
The special police attaché will be able to directly cooperate with the UK law enforcement and participate directly in local operations involving Lithuanian citizens as suspects.
This would be especially important in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
"If the UK leaves the EU without an agreement, the UK will no longer have access to all EU law enforcement networks, information systems and databases and will no longer be a fully-fledged member of Europol," according to a docment issues by the Lithuanian Interior Ministry.
"As a result, the scope of bilateral Lithuanian police cooperation with the UK would increase significantly," it says.
The attaché's task will be to ensure smooth cooperation in preventing, investigating and solving human trafficking crimes, illicit possession of drugs, weapons, and explosives, and money laundering.
The ministry says no additional funding will be required for the new post.
