European Union's internal security strategy

The EU’s Internal Security Strategy (ISS) is designed to enable Europe to respond to existing challenges and emerging threats, according to a shared approach that involves both EU actors and the national and local levels. This Second Report on the implementation of the EU Internal Security Strategy looks at the progress made in 2012 as well as identifying the challenges to be tackled in 2013.

The ISS is based on five strategic objectives, namely (i) disrupting international crime networks; (ii) preventing terrorism and addressing radicalisation and recruitment; (iii) raising levels of security for citizens and businesses in cyberspace; (iv) strengthening security through border management; and (v) increasing Europe’s resilience to crises and disasters.

In the 2011 ISS implementation report, the fight against organised crime and cybercrime were identified as two main challenges to be addressed in 2012.

Conclusions: the report concluded that implementation of the Internal Security Strategy is well on its way. It shows that much has been achieved for each of the five objectives. However, there is still a way to go.

For 2013, organised crime is still considered to be one of the major challenges for EU internal security to address.

Money laundering, corruption, trafficking and mobile organised crime groups are just some of the threats foreseen.

Cybercrime continues to be of particular concern.

Another important challenge for 2013 is to improve tools to better counter growing violent extremism.

The next and last report on implementation of the ISS will be presented in mid-2014. The report will assess whether the objectives of the ISS have been met and also consider future challenges within the field of internal security.