This is highlighted in Europol\u2019s new analysis,<\/b>\u00a0presented jointly in Brussels by the law enforcement agency itself, the European Commission, and the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU. The previous report had been released in 2024.<\/p>\n
The most positive aspect of the report notes that law enforcement actions have succeeded in dismantling criminal networks throughout the EU. However, it immediately points out that the\u00a0\u201cthreat from organized crime remains strong, as these networks are flexible and have managed to take root throughout Europe.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
The report analyzes more than 700 criminal networks, comprising more than 400,000 members from 118 countries.<\/b>\u00a0Eighty-five percent of these networks use legitimate business structures, which underscores the enormous scale, scope, and increasingly transnational nature of the threat.<\/p>\n
These networks operate across a wide range of areas, from\u00a0drug trafficking to cybercrime, including the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, fraud, and money laundering, and more generally what the report itself refers to as \u201ccrime-as-a-service.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
They are increasingly using and abusing digital technologies, global trade flows, and legally established business structures to support and expand their criminal activities. Europol has found that this vast number of criminal networks no longer operates in isolation but has managed to create a \u201cfluid criminal ecosystem\u201d that adapts rapidly to changes, fills gaps, and\u00a0takes advantage of new criminal opportunities offered by the rapid development of technologies.<\/b><\/p>\n
Among the main conclusions of the Europol report, one stands out: \u201cTo stay ahead of these growing threats, law enforcement agencies across the EU must act with the same agility.\u201d In its view, law enforcement efforts should no longer focus solely on individual criminals but must also address the systems and vulnerabilities that organized crime exploits\u2014with remarkable success, as it appears.<\/p>\n
Hanna Virkkunen, Executive Vice Chair of the Commission on Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy,<\/b>\u00a0acknowledged that \u201cby adapting ever more rapidly and being already deeply embedded in our societies, criminal networks are turning our vulnerabilities into criminal opportunities, which seriously threatens our economy and our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
She warned that \u201cour response must be equally strategic, so that the EU supports member states at every stage of the fight against organized crime: from prevention to investigation; from judicial cooperation to prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be the only way,\u201d she said, \u201cfor Europe to be better prepared to close any cracks or loopholes that organized crime could exploit, and thereby ensure better protection for our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, the\u00a0Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner,\u00a0<\/b>stated that \u201cthoroughly studying and understanding the enemy is the first step toward defeating it. Our response [to the data published in the Europol report] is already underway, ranging from a strategy against drug trafficking to the fight against mafias involved in migrant smuggling, including digital fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then offered a veiled criticism by stating that\u00a0\u201csince our powers in this area are national, the solutions can only be European. This is why we are updating Europol\u2019s mandate,<\/b>\u00a0so that we can guarantee European solutions to the problem of crime and ensure that every EU member state can act more quickly and effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the terms of Europol\u2019s renewed mandate, the organization will be better equipped to provide more and better information to the authorities in each country; it will offer enhanced on-the-ground support to member states; and it will lead technological innovation in law enforcement, while facilitating cooperation with various EU agencies and international partners, so that these criminal threats are combated not only at the European level but on a global scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is highlighted in Europol\u2019s new analysis,\u00a0presented jointly in Brussels by the law enforcement agency itself, the European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1055438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,6490,26943],"class_list":["post-1055437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-l","tag-union-europea"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116827718157923106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}