On Wednesday 15 May, the European Commission published its Seventh Progress Report on the implementation of the EU Security Union Strategy, listing the actions taken since 2020 to strengthen internal security in the EU. The current EU Strategy runs until 2025.
The report, explains the Commission, shows progress in five areas: critical infrastructures, terrorism, drugs and organised crime, judicial and police cooperation and, finally, cooperation with international partners and agencies.
It recalls the various pieces of legislation adopted since 2020, such as the “toolbox” that the EU has equipped itself with in terms of cyber-resilience and cybersecurity, explained the Vice-President of the Commission, Margarítis Schinás, or the creation of new agencies such as the European Drug Agency or the Anti-Money Laundering Agency.
In 2022, the EMPACT platform (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) led to 9,922 cross-border arrests, the identification of 4,019 victims of human trafficking, the arrest of 3,646 migrant smugglers, the seizure of €180 million in criminal assets and money and the seizure of 62 tonnes of drugs, the report states.
It also reviews the work of Europol, which recently uncovered the activities of 821 particularly dangerous criminal networks in the EU.
Designed at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the new Security Union Strategy was developed “against a backdrop of an increasingly complex security landscape, with hybrid and terrorist threats targeting the security of European citizens and businesses both in the physical and cyber spaces”. Four years on, “the geopolitical, economic and security context within the EU and its neighbourhood has profoundly and durably changed. The risks we face today are very different from those that dominated when the Security Union Strategy was first conceived”, writes the Commission in this report.
The pandemic has shed light on “the reliance of our societies and economies on information and communication networks as well as on connected products, and the need to ensure their cybersecurity in the face of booming and extremely adaptable cybercrime. The level of terrorist threat on European soil remains and a number of Member States have recently raised their national threat rating to the highest level”.
At the same time, the threat posed by organised crime has continued to intensify, and the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings have become prime targets for the profits of criminal groups.
The “Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has brought an increase in cyberattacks and exposed the potential vulnerability of some EU critical infrastructure”.
In its conclusion, the Commission notes that “the concept of security, traditionally centred on military and home affairs, has to keep pace with changing threats. Risks and vulnerabilities have to be taken into account from economic security, to supply disruptions and crisis preparedness, and encompassing practically every sector of our society, from health, environment/climate to energy and transport. The digital dimension is also now fundamental to all aspects of security”.
Constant efforts are therefore needed to ensure that security aspects are embedded into all EU policies and decision-making processes.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/c7m (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)