We live in an increasingly unpredictable world in which the nature of threats is evolving and crises are becoming more multidimensional. Four years ago, the EU committed to working on its internal and external security challenges when it adopted the EU Security Union Strategy 2020-2025.
Since then, there have been regular progress reports looking at how successful the EU has been in implementing this strategy and in making Europe more secure. Today, the Commission published its Seventh Progress Report.
The EU is now better equipped to face security challenges than it was in 2020, having adopted and put in place a range of measures to prevent and address these evolving threats. This is reflected in today’s report, which takes stock of progress in five key areas:
- Strengthening the EU’s physical and digital infrastructure: The EU has taken measures to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure and the resilience of the entities operating it, to avoid or mitigate the impact of disruptions to essential services, and reinforced the legal framework to address current and future online and offline risks.
- Fighting terrorism and radicalisation: A set of measures and tools has been adopted to support Member States in the fight against terrorism. The EU is now better equipped to anticipate, prevent, protect and respond to terrorist threats.
- Fighting organised crime: The EU has taken measures to dismantle organised crime structures and tackle threats in areas such as cybercrime, illegal trafficking of drugs and other goods, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings, environmental crime, economic and financial crime and anti-corruption.
- Strengthening law enforcement and judicial cooperation: Among others, this includes new rules on information exchange and a revision of the Prüm framework on automated data exchange for police cooperation, new rules on Advanced Passenger Information and a stronger role for Europol.
- Cooperation with international partners: The EU is safer when its partners are safer too. In 2023 alone, around EUR 700 million were spent to assist the capacities of third countries and reinforce our cooperation with them on countering terrorism and preventing and countering violent extremism.
For more information
Text of the Security Union Strategy 2020-2025
Press release: Commission reports on overall progress on the Security Union
Factsheet: EU Security Union – key achievements
Video – A Security Union: Protecting Citizens, Infrastructure & Democracy