The European Police Cooperation Agency (EUROPOL) has published a new report on the terrorist threat in the EU in 2019, in which it explains that 119 attacks, successful or failed, have been recorded in the EU, specifically in 13 Member States. The agency estimates that the threat remains high in the EU, even though the number of attacks has decreased compared to 2018 (129 recorded attacks).
These attacks have sometimes been fatal, with 10 people killed in attacks in London, Paris and Germany and 27 others injured.
The report, presented to the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) by Manuel Navarrette, the head of the agency’s counter-terrorism centre, also states that 1,004 people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorist acts in 19 Member States, with the highest number of arrests having been made in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The official identified three main categories of attacks: far-right, jihadists and far-left.
Three Member States reported a total of six right-wing terrorist attacks in 2019 (one completed, one failed, four thwarted), compared to only one in 2018. In addition, a number of attacks not classified as terrorist under national law, committed by right-wing extremists, have been reported by Germany and have claimed the lives of three people.
With regard to jihadism, the Islamic State (IS) has maintained its global network of affiliates despite its losses in Iraq and Syria. In 2019, eight EU Member States were affected by jihadist terrorist attacks.
For left-wing and anarchist terrorism, attacks labelled as terrorist increased in 2019, especially in Greece, Italy and Spain. The number of arrests has more than tripled: from 34 in 2018 to 111 in 2019, due to a sharp increase in Italy.
See the Europol report: https://bit.ly/2YtZXCd (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)