The article provides a brief analysis, based on research by various scholars, of the development of police co-operation in the world and the European Union. With the aim of evaluating police cooperation in the EU, the author studies police co-operation at the global level by identifying and stating the causes stimulating such co-operation and influencing its demand. Respectively, through comparison with global tendencies, the paper analyses police co-operation in the EU by raising problems encountered by national law enforcement institutions and identifying possible police co-operation models. Although it is stated that police co-operation will not grow into different units operating on the European Union level, however, practical examples demonstrate the opposite trend. This causes problems and confusion in practical work because the strategy of the European Union police structures towards establishing a common area of freedom, security and justice becomes unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to identify a clear vision for European development (the FBI model vs. strong co-operation among small groups of individual countries), because increasing police co-operation leads to a greater number of problems not only in data protection and law enforcement but also in the human rights area. It is also necessary to give adequate consideration as to whether Europol could assume executive functions and competence or rather operate as an international police unit
