The Pelican case
February 9, 2026
Psychopathy
February 11, 2026
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Hidden from public view due to the opaque nature of its activities, organised crime is a significant threat to European citizens, business, and state institutions, as well as to the economy as a whole. As highlighted in the latest European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (2021 EU SOCTA) 1 , organised crime groups are present across all Member States.
The organised crime landscape is characterised by a networked environment where cooperation between criminals is fluid, systematic and driven by a profit-oriented focus.
Organised crime groups use their large illegal profits to infiltrate the licit economy and public institutions, including via corruption, eroding the rule of law and fundamental rights and undermining people’s right to safety as well as their trust in public authorities.
Criminal revenues in the nine main criminal markets in the European Union amounted to €139 billion in 2019 2 , corresponding to 1% of the Union’s Gross Domestic Product.
As underlined in the Security Union Strategy 3 , action taken at EU level to support Member States in the fight against organised crime must be continued and enhanced.
The complexity of the business model of organised crime groups was exposed in 2020 in the joint investigation, led by French and Dutch authorities with the support of Europol and Eurojust, to dismantle EncroChat, an encrypted phone network widely used by criminal networks. The EncroChat case has so far led to more than 1,800 arrests and more than 1,500 new investigations.
In addition, it displayed the extent to which organised crime groups operate transnationally and online across all criminal markets in a networked environment, using increasingly sophisticated modi operandi and new technologies.
In March 2021, another joint operation following the cracking of Sky ECC, an encrypted network to which many former EncroChat users had migrated, led to the prevention of more than 70 violent incidents,
the seizure of more than 28 tons of drug substances and the arrest of more than 80 suspects involved in organised crime and drugs trafficking in Belgium and the Netherlands. More than 400 new investigations against high risk organised crime groups have been initiated.
The use of violence by criminals involved in organised crime is on the rise in the EU, as is the threat from violent incidents due to the frequent use of firearms or explosives in public spaces 4 . The agility of organised crime groups to adapt to and capitalise on the changes in the environment where they operate was confirmed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Criminal groups have exploited the pandemic to expand online crime activities 5 and to engage in fraud including in counterfeit medical products. The sustained high demand for Covid-19 vaccines makes for an attractive pursuit for criminals seeking to engage in the production and supply of counterfeit vaccines or in fraud schemes targeting individuals or public authorities.
EU governments have so far detected attempts of scams and fake offers by fraudsters trying to sell over 1.1 billion vaccine doses for a total price of over €15.4 billion 6 . The economic crisis resulting from the pandemic increases the risks of organised crime activities and that these further infiltrate society and the economy.
The transnational threats and evolving modi operandi of organised crime groups operating offline and online call for a coordinated, more targeted and adapted response.
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
While national authorities operating on the ground are on the frontline in the fight against organised crime, action at Union level and global partnerships are paramount to ensure effective cooperation as well as information and knowledge exchange among national authorities, supported by a common criminal law framework and effective financial means.
Furthermore, organised crime is emblematic of the link between internal and external security. International engagement on countering organised crime, including further steps to develop partnerships and cooperation with countries in the immediate neighbourhood and beyond, is needed to address this transnational challenge.
Both the European Parliament and the Council 8 have stressed that organised crime causes enormous damage and highlighted the importance of strong EU action to counter all forms of organised criminal activity.
This Strategy builds on past achievements, identifies priority work strands to better protect citizens and the economy from organised crime groups and puts forward concrete medium and long-term actions, which will be developed in full respect of fundamental rights. It constitutes the first dedicated Strategy on organised crime since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty 9 .
1.Boosting law enforcement and judicial cooperation
Today’s organised crime is an international enterprise. 65% of the criminal groups active in EU Member States are composed of members of multiple nationalities 10 . Transport routes of drugs, firearms or counterfeit products span across all continents through a global supply chain.
Mobile organised crime groups engaged in organised property crime move quickly across multiple jurisdictions to carry out their crimes. By operating across different jurisdictions, criminal groups avoid detection and exploit the differences of the applicable national laws.
1.1.Smooth exchange of and timely access to information
In an area of freedom, security and justice, where there are no internal border controls, a high level of security can be ensured through robust police and judicial cooperation across Member States.
Timely access to information, in full respect of fundamental rights and in particular data protection, is essential for the fight against all forms of organised crime.
The European Union has provided law enforcement with a wide range of tools to facilitate exchange of information that has proved crucial in uncovering criminal activities and networks.
The Schengen Information System (SIS) has enabled frontline officers to quickly detect and locate persons and objects involved in organised crime and to act accordingly.
The information in this shared database can help officers arrest a person, seize an object or establish the travel movements of persons involved in an investigation. In 2020 alone, the Schengen Information System was searched almost 4 billion times resulting in more than 200,000 hits.
The 2018 review of the SIS framework 11 considerably reinforced the system’s functionalities and introduced a number of new tools, allowing national authorities to enter alerts on persons at risk of abduction or trafficking in human beings or to request inquiry checks of a suspect.
The reform also grants Europol access to SIS alerts and to the exchange of supplementary information and makes more effective use of biometric data, by introducing the possibility of using facial images for identification purposes and of including DNA profiles to facilitate the identification of missing persons.
The implementation of these novelties is moving ahead at full speed so that the new system is fully operational by the end of 2021, with the implementing acts and technical documentation completed, work on the technical development of SIS well underway and with the first steps undertaken to develop a SIS handbook and training activities for SIS users.
The potential of SIS in combatting organised crime will be further enhanced through the new framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the area of justice and home affairs .
It is crucial to devote all efforts to achieving full interoperability by the end of 2023. This will facilitate law enforcement access to relevant information in the EU centralised information systems and allow the detection of multiple identities, essential to combat identity fraud often used by criminals to commit crimes or escape justice.
Within the interoperability framework, a multiple-identity detector functionality is being developed which, by checking data across these systems, will help to effectively address the fraudulent use of identities.
Investigators working in isolation in one Member State are often not able to establish the involvement of an organised crime group behind a specific crime.
The 2008 Prüm framework allows law enforcement authorities, in the course of their investigations, to search for DNA and fingerprints in the databases of other Member States on a hit-no-hit basis through bilateral connections, and to search for vehicle registration data.
While the Prüm framework has proven instrumental in solving many crimes in Europe, its decentralised nature has resulted in many bilateral connections between Member States’ national databases not being established due to the technical complexity and the important financial and human resources entailed.
EUROPOL
The High Representative/Vice-President, supported by the European External Action Service, will continue to play a key role in enhancing strategic and operational cooperation with third countries and international organisations, by making full use of its external tools, such as the High Level Dialogues, the network of Counter-Terrorism/Security experts in EU Delegations and, where relevant, Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations.
Moreover, the Commission and the European External Action Service will continue to prioritise capacity building projects in third countries and in particular the neighbourhood and enlargement countries, both to support operational cooperation with EU Member States and agencies and to equip partners with the tools allowing them to root out complex criminal structures potentially affecting the EU.
Interpol is another key actor when it comes to international cooperation against organised crime. Interpol’s 18 databases contain over 100 million law enforcement records, including on wanted criminals, suspected terrorists, fingerprints, stolen vehicles, stolen and lost travel documents, weapons and firearms.
These databases enable law enforcement and judicial authorities to identify links and thus facilitate investigations against transnational organised crime.
The Commission is adopting alongside this Strategy a recommendation to the Council to open negotiations with Interpol on an EU-Interpol cooperation agreement in order to improve cooperation and address operational needs.
The main international instrument enabling cooperation and mutual legal assistance in organised crime investigations is the United Nations Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which the EU and Member States are party to.
In 2021, the Commission will update the declaration of competence to bring it in line with the Lisbon Treaty changes and to ensure that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) can make use of UNTOC rules on international mutual legal assistance to cooperate with third countries’ authorities.
In addition, the Commission will explore the possibility of notifying the EPPO as a responsible authority in the context of existing Union-level cooperation agreements with third countries and, where necessary, will consider opening negotiations with selected priority third countries.
As expressed in the Kyoto Declaration adopted at the 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Union and Member States are fully committed to strengthening the international framework promoting the rule of law, crime prevention and criminal justice, including through an active engagement in the ongoing processes to review the implementation of UNTOC and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
With most criminal organisations structured around a core group or in a hierarchical way 35 , the organised crime landscape is characterised by a networked environment where different groups and individuals systematically cooperate through ‘joint ventures’ within loose and fluid criminal networks.
Criminal organisations orchestrating the supply chains in international criminal markets cooperate with smaller groups specialised in certain activities and with individuals in pivotal roles providing services to criminals such as document fraud, legal advice, encrypted communications or transportation.
The capacity of the criminal groups to link each other undermines law enforcement efforts, since each segment of the criminal chain can be easily replaced in case of law enforcement intervention.
Against this landscape, it is crucial to scale up the dismantling of organised crime structures, targeting those groups that are a higher risk to Europe’s security and the individuals in the higher echelons of criminal organisations.
To this effect, some Member States have established structures at national level or specialised bodies in law enforcement and the judiciary against mafia-style organisations. These experiences have proven effective in spurring a strategic approach promoting efforts leading towards the disruption of criminal infrastructures.
Moreover, the establishment of dedicated police units or judicial bodies would facilitate greater cross-border cooperation. The Commission will promote the exchange of best practices to facilitate the replication of such models across Member States, adapted to national specificities.
At European level, the operational cooperation against mafia-style organised crime groups carried out through the @ON Network facilitates the on-site deployment of specialised investigators across Member States to assist in investigations into cross-border organised crime groups.
Another important milestone is the work carried out by Europol together with Member States to identify and carry out intelligence and investigative activities against selected High Value Targets , namely suspected members of criminal organisations posing a particularly high risk to two or more Member States.
To step up action against criminal organisations, further structural cooperation is highly needed. Developing common criteria for all Member States to identify High-Value Targets and facilitating real-time operational cooperation and information exchange would enable more joint and systematic investigations on those persons having a key role in a criminal network.
WILDLIFE PLANTS ANIMALS
Fraud, including customs, excise and VAT fraud, is another area of crime that is becoming increasingly appealing for organised crime. In addition to current efforts by Europol and Eurojust in this area, the EPPO will investigate and prosecute offences regarding participation in a criminal organisation, if the focus of the criminal activity of such a criminal organisation is to commit offences affecting the Union budget, including serious cross-border VAT fraud.
Counterfeiting of products is a high impact crime. Counterfeit products represent 6.8% of EU imports and are a significant source of income for organised crime groups.
Medical, healthcare and sanitary products constitute a considerable and increasing share of counterfeiting, a phenomenon that has alarmingly increased with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organised crime has engaged in the production and supply of counterfeit protective equipment, test kits and pharmaceuticals, and there is a risk that organised crime groups try to exploit opportunities arising in the EU from the high demand for vaccines.
Law enforcement authorities together with Europol and the European Anti-Fraud Office are successfully conducting important operations leading to significant arrests and seizures of counterfeit products, including medical products, toys, food and beverages .
However, more needs to be done to reinforce operational cooperation to address counterfeiting. Organised crime groups are increasingly involved in crimes such as counterfeiting of pesticides and fraudulent use of the EU organic log Building on its official controls and enforcement framework, the Commission will keep stepping up its efforts to tackle food fraud, and will work to empower national authorities, create a zero-tolerance policy and increase prevention, controls, deterrence as well as effective sanctions.
To this end, in November 2020, the Commission adopted the Intellectual Property Action Plan, and in 2022 it will establish an EU Toolbox against counterfeiting setting out principles for joint action, cooperation and data sharing among law enforcement authorities, right holders and intermediaries.
Given that counterfeiting of medical products mostly occurs in third countries, it is important to reinforce global governance, notably through the accession to and ratification by EU Member States, and possibly the Union itself, of the Council of Europe Convention on the counterfeiting of medical products (Medicrime Convention), which has been signed by fourteen Member States, out of which only six have ratified it .
Environmental crime deserves particular attention due to its harmful effects on biodiversity and on the environment, health and social cohesion within the EU and in third countries.
All kinds of wildlife – plants, animals and derived products – as well as companion animals continue to be traded illegally, often on a large scale and sometimes with potential devastating consequences. Illegal waste management and shipments undermine the legitimate waste treatment and recycling industries.
The EU has adopted legislation to regulate the legal trade of wildlife and of waste and required Member States to criminalise and set penalties on a broad range of environmental offences .
These legislative tools have been complemented with the 2016 Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking and the 2018 Action Plan on Environmental Compliance and Governance. The European Anti-Fraud Office has significantly developed its operational activities in the fight against illicit trade of goods putting at risk the environment.
Despite these efforts, inspection, law enforcement and judicial authorities often lack the capacity and resources to effectively detect, investigate and prosecute environmental crime.
This is particularly the case in Member States where there are no specialised enforcement or prosecution bodies and no established strategic approach to combating environmental crime. There is a need to strengthen the enforcement capacity at national and EU level.
Sanctions imposed are not sufficiently dissuasive and the coordination and exchange of information within and across Member States, particularly between administrative authorities and law enforcement bodies, is insufficient.
The Commission is reviewing the EU Waste Shipments Regulation and the Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.
The Environmental Crime Directive will be revised to clarify the scope of environmental crime offences, provide more precision about sanctioning and facilitate the use of effective investigative tools and promote cross-border cooperation and information sharing.
In addition, cooperation through the European environmental enforcement networks will be enhanced. Finally, since the international dimension of wildlife trafficking is crucial, the Commission will promote the adoption of an additional protocol under the UNTOC.
Trafficking of cultural goods has a devastating impact on countries’ cultural heritage, and it provides means of financing for criminal organisations, and it is instrumental for money laundering.
SOCIAL COMMITTEE
Furthermore, it may take weeks or even months for authorities to share the personal data behind a hit. To enhance the efficiency of criminal investigations and reinforce the automated exchange of information on criminals, the Commission will propose to modernise the Prüm framework to address the operational needs of law enforcement authorities, in compliance with fundamental rights and the requirements of necessity and proportionality, and to align the data protection provisions with the Law Enforcement Directive .
The Commission is exploring options to ensure the connection of relevant databases between all Member States and to speed up the exchange of information following a hit. The Commission is also assessing the need to exchange additional data categories relevant for criminal investigations, such as facial images, driving licences, police records and ballistics, under the Prüm framework, and to add Europol as a new partner to that framework.
Given the cross-border and international dimension of organised crime, travel information is of the essence to identify high risk travellers who are not otherwise known to law enforcement agencies, and to establish links between members of criminal groups.
The processing of Passengers Name Record (PNR) data assists relevant authorities in identifying persons involved in criminal activities committed by organised groups.
To ensure this tool is used to its full potential, the Commission will continue to monitor full and effective implementation of the Passenger Name Record Directive and support cooperation and exchange of PNR data between Member States, in particular by exchanging best practices, training and developing the necessary capabilities .
Advanced Passenger Information (API), biographic data of passengers collected by air carriers during check-in, is equally highly valuable , also due to its complementarity with Passenger Name Record data.
A revision of the current legal framework would allow for a variety of improvements, notably on data accuracy and data completeness. More importantly, the Commission will analyse the potential use of API data to systematically query Europol data for countering organised crime and possibly extending its use to Intra-Schengen movements and waterborne carriers and coaches.
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
With this objective, the Commission will make a proposal to revise the Advanced Passenger Information Directive in the first half of 2022, based on an Impact Assessment where these options and its impacts will be further explored.
1.2. Advanced cooperation frameworks
Major parts of law enforcement cooperation across the EU are based on the 1990 Convention implementing the Schengen agreement.
This bedrock is complemented by other EU instruments, such as the Council Framework Decision 2006/960/JHA on simplifying the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities of EU Member States or by chapters 4 and 5 of the Council Decision 2008/615/JHA of 23 June 2008 on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime (Prüm).
Member States have complemented this framework with a complex set of bilateral and multilateral agreements. As a result, the level of cooperation between Member States is uneven, creating operational obstacles preventing effective cross border cooperation.
The Commission will prepare a legislative proposal for an EU Police Cooperation Code. This will draw on the results of an ongoing external study and will be based on a thorough consultation process, taking into account the competence of Member States.
The aim is to streamline and develop the various instruments for law enforcement cooperation including relevant EU legislation, Council guidelines, and Member States’ good practices from bilateral and multilateral agreements into a coherent and modern rulebook that also covers investigative tools.
Furthermore, in order to address potential obstacles to cross-border cooperation specifically against organised crime structures, the Commission has launched an external study to assess whether the 2008 Council Framework Decision on Organised Crime 19 is still fit for purpose.
Europol plays an important role as the EU criminal information hub, supporting police cooperation and information exchange and producing, every four years, the European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU SOCTA) report.
In order to address pressing operational needs, such as cooperation with private parties or the processing of large sets of data, the Commission proposed in December 2020 to strengthen Europol’s mandate .
#The new competences and tools foreseen in the proposal will enable Europol to step up its support to fighting organised crime. Both the European Parliament and the Council are working on their mandates for the upcoming inter-institutional negotiations that are expected to start later this year. The Commission will facilitate the negotiations and aims at a swift agreement by co-legislators by the end of 2021.
One of the key tools to implement the present Strategy and to step up efforts against organised crime structures through coordinated operations is the European Multidisciplinary Platform
Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT). Since 2010, EMPACT enables Member States to identify the EU priority crime threats where collective action is needed and to tackle these criminal threats through a structured cooperation at EU level between law enforcement, customs, tax authorities, magistrates, European institutions and agencies and, where relevant, third countries, international organisations and the private sector .
Through EMPACT, Member States and their partners carry out over 200 joint operational actions every year, aimed at fighting organised crime, for instance developing a criminal intelligence picture on EU crime priorities, building law enforcement capacities to target specific crimes, reinforcing cooperation with international partners, carrying out prevention activities, joint investigations against specific crime phenomena or specific criminal groups, and addressing the methods of these criminal groups to launder money, commit crimes online or obtain fraudulent documents.
Although EMPACT already delivers significant operational results, for instance in terms of drugs seized or criminals arrested, it is currently not used to its full potential.
Its complexity, lack of awareness among frontline officers and insufficient funding do not always ensure the ownership and active involvement of Member States and external partners and hamper the development of more complex operations that would more significantly harm organised crime groups.
The Commission will work, together with all relevant EMPACT stakeholders to put in place a number of measures, outlined in detail in the Staff Working Document accompanying this Strategy, in order to use EMPACT to its full potential, and turn it into a true EU flagship instrument for multidisciplinary and multiagency operational cooperation to fight organised crime at EU level.
The Commission will also assess the feasibility of casting the EMPACT mechanism into EU legislation. This would firmly establish EMPACT as a key EU instrument for Member States and relevant EU agencies and bodies to cooperate operationally in the fight against organised and serious international crime.
It would make EMPACT the permanent vector of structural cooperation between European and national crime strategies and actions, with a harmonised methodology and approach, as a legal foundation for ad hoc joint partnerships based on operational needs.
The Commission will also seek to significantly reinforce the funding of EMPACT, to enable it to develop more complex operations. The Commission will also explore, together with all relevant stakeholders, the possibility to streamline the current EMPACT along four modernised and upgraded pillars , complemented by guiding principles against organised crime.
Furthermore, it will aim to increase the role of European networks and expert groups in supporting EMPACT actions. Finally, the Commission, together with the European External Action Service, will promote the increased association of third countries to EMPACT activities, and promote the development of the EMPACT methodology outside the EU, tailored to operational needs.
In order to bring criminals to justice, law enforcement and judicial authorities need to work hand in hand: an effective response to organised crime requires further steps to reinforce further judicial cooperation.
The recommendations of the Parliament and Council Conclusions call for improvements of the practical operation of the European Arrest Warrant. The Commission is therefore enforcing the correct implementation, following the Commission’s report on the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant, and will provide guidance in an updated handbook.
Moreover, to avoid parallel investigations on those criminals operating across several jurisdictions, common rules could be necessary to allow Member States to transfer criminal proceedings to another Member State, for example the Member State of nationality of the suspect, taking into account the Framework Decision for the prevention of conflicts of jurisdiction.
The Commission is currently further studying this issue to explore the need for EU action in this area. The Commission is also looking into problems arising with regard to the collection, transfer and use of evidence in cross-border proceedings and possible ways forward .
The communication and sharing of information within Joint Investigation Teams is essential and the Commission will therefore work on developing a Joint Investigation Teams collaboration platform and on stepping up Eurojust cooperation with third countries. Moreover, as announced in the Communication on the digitalisation of justice in the EU , the Commission will present by the end of 2021 a proposal to enable the secure electronic communication and exchange of information and documents between courts, national authorities, and justice and home affairs agencies where relevant.
The Commission will also support modernising Eurojust’s case management system to help Eurojust provide feedback to national authorities and develop judicial links between ongoing investigations.
This should enable Eurojust to work efficiently with its partners, in particular Europol and the EPPO, helping to coordinate investigations at national level and avoid parallel investigations with the aim of ensuring effective prosecutions.
1.3. International cooperation
Law enforcement cooperation beyond the Union is necessary to disrupt global criminal networks and transport routes. It is essential to step up international cooperation including through the activities of the relevant justice and home affairs agencies, in particular in relation to the neighbourhood and enlargement countries.
There is an urgent need to further develop serious and organised crime intelligence at Europol and enhance information exchange and investigative actions with third countries and regions constituting major hubs for high-risk organised crime affecting EU Member States, including via Member States’ bilateral Liaison Officers seconded to these critical areas.
The Commission has received directives for negotiating international agreements with third countries to exchange personal data with Europol and to enable judicial cooperation with Eurojust and it will strive to make progress in these difficult negotiations.
Furthermore, EU international cooperation programmes and projects are relevant to build trans-continental law enforcement and criminal justice networks. The Commission’s support for such networks and to joint operations will continue to expand.
The EU approach to external security within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy remain an essential component of EU efforts to countering organised crime in order to strengthen stability and protect European security interests.
SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY
The current @ON Network should be reinforced by incorporating all Member States and developing best practices, as well as through a closer link to EMPACT in its work against criminal networks.
A greater emphasis on organised crime investigations also requires a more robust intelligence picture of the organised crime groups that are at the heart of the complex web of organised crime networks.
Europol and Member States should continue their work to develop intelligence-led strategic and tactical pictures on those groups that pose a greater threat to Europe’s security, including through the development of ad hoc reports that complement the EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA).
The exchange of strategic information with other actors, including Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations can be beneficial in this regard. In addition, a better overview of the dimension of criminal activities and the actions taken by Member States is needed.
Given the opaque nature of organised crime, it is difficult to measure and quantify these activities, and the data and statistics available to the European Union are fragmented, collected mainly through reporting obligations scattered around various legislative acts.
Building on the outcome of a comprehensive study already carried out 38 , the Commission will assess the need for a more systematic collection of statistics in this area.
2.2.A tailor-made response to specific forms of crime
According to the 2021 EU SOCTA, organised crime groups active in Europe are involved in a variety of criminal activities, with most criminal groups involved in drugs trafficking, organised property crime, followed by fraud (including customs, excise and VAT fraud), migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings.
While some groups are specialised in a particular criminal market, others are increasingly poly-criminal, using the profits of one criminal activity to finance their expansion into other crime areas. Specific forms of crime require a dedicated response from a legislative and policy perspective.
The EU has set out rules in relation to serious crimes such as migrant smuggling , and to detect and prohibit new psychoactive substances , to control the possession and trade of firearms and to prevent the reactivation of neutralised weapons .
Drugs trafficking remains a major source of income for organised crime groups and the EU set out the priorities for the next five years in the EU Drugs Strategy 2021-2025, which was adopted by the Council in December 2020.
The discussions on the related Action Plan on Drugs are continuing in the Council, while the Commission is preparing the first initiatives to implement the Strategy and the Action Plan .
Firearms are a key enabler of the increasing violence by criminal groups, allowing them to intimidate their opponents and exert control over their members and markets. To limit the availability of firearms in the hands of criminals, the Commission started the implementation of the new 2020-2025 EU Action plan against firearms trafficking. It will publish the application report of the Firearms Directive, identifying initial means of improving the legal framework.
Migrant smuggling remains a key activity for organised crime groups that endangers migrants and damages the migration management objectives of the EU. The Commission will adopt in 2021 a new Action Plan against migrant smuggling to combat criminal networks involved in this crime, support law enforcement and inter-agency cooperation and stimulate cooperation with third countries, as well as with Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations wherever relevant.
Trafficking in human beings, a particularly abhorrent form of crime, is often committed by organised crime groups, which increasingly recruit their victims online, forge identity documents and work permit and exploit them for sexual purposes, forced labour, forced criminality or begging.
While the priorities and actions of this Strategy cover trafficking in human beings, the Commission is also proposing alongside this Strategy a dedicated EU Strategy on Combating Trafficking in human beings 2021-2025 to address the specificities of this crime.
Cybercrime is becoming more aggressive and confrontational. The rapidly progressing digitalisation of society, which has seen a surge with the Covid-19 pandemic, creates new vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals involved in cyber-dependent crime.
Cyberattacks such as the creation and spread of malware, hacking to steal sensitive personal or industry data, or denial of service attacks, have increased over the last year both in number and degree of sophistication .
The European Cybercrime Centre at Europol (EC3), which was established in 2013, has played a key role in tracking the exploitation of the Covid-19 pandemic by organised crime, and creating awareness raising materials and reports for the information of Member States and the public, as well as supporting investigations into online scams perpetrated by organised crime groups. In addition, it has published its regular Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) reports, which provide an important source of information for priority setting in operations and policy .
In line with the 2020 EU Strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse and the EU Comprehensive Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2021-2025), in 2021 the Commission will propose legislation to improve the protection of children against child sexual abuse, including by requiring relevant online services providers to detect known child sexual abuse material and to report that material to public authorities .
The legislation will also ensure consistency with other legislative initiatives, in particular with the proposal on the Digital Services Act .
The Commission also continues to support the European Parliament and the Council in reaching an agreement as soon as possible on the proposal for a regulation regarding voluntary efforts by certain service providers in the fight against child sexual abuse online .
In parallel, Europol has been supporting the expansion of its successful “Trace an Object” campaign, which crowdsources information on individual objects in images showing child sexual abuse that can help narrow down the geographic location of an abuse and therefore eventually contribute to the identification and rescue of victims.
The move towards cashless economies, further accelerated by the pandemic, has created increased opportunities for fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment such as credit cards and online payment tools , which poses a serious threat to the EU’s security.
They provide an important source of income for organised crime and enable criminal activities such as drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings. The EU adopted stricter rules in 2019 , which Member States have to implement by 31 May 2021. The Commission will closely monitor progress to ensure the full effectiveness of the new rules.
