Project lead: CEPOL

The Counter-Terrorism Information Exchange and Criminal Justice Responses project

The Counter-Terrorism Information Exchange and Criminal Justice Responses (CT INFLOW) project aims to contribute to prevent and disrupt terrorist networks and the activities of recruiters to terrorism, cutting off terrorist funding, and bringing terrorists to justice, while continuing to respect human rights and international law.

Specifically, the project targets law enforcement and other relevant personnel (such as judges, prosecutors, police, other security agencies and international organisations) in beneficiary countries whose tasks encompass the criminal justice process to counter terrorism, including assistance or facilitation of international cooperation, information exchange and criminal justice responses in or between partner countries and international organisations.

Context

According to the European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2019 (EU TE-SAT), there are significant interlinkages between the threat emanating from terrorism outside the EU and the internal security of the Union. The complexity of this threat creates massive challenges, which exceed the capacity of any national law enforcement and judicial authority to solve on their own and demands a concerted international response.

The exchange of best practices and information between the EU and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is therefore an essential part of the solution to mitigate this threat.

CEPOL has been implementing capacity building projects in the MENA region since 2015. Being the only EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) agency with a mandate to provide law enforcement training and due to its profound outreach to professional networks and law enforcement officials and experts in the EU and beyond, CEPOL is ideally placed to successfully conduct the CT INFLOW project and its objectives.

Specific objectives

Under the CT INFLOW project, CEPOL aims to achieve the following specific objectives:

Support partners to improve best practices for information exchange, cross-border investigations and prosecutions, in particular of foreign fighters and individuals suspected of planning or carrying out terrorist offences.
Achieve a reinforced institutional capacity to exchange terrorism-related information, whilst maintaining a high standard of data protection, and contribute to developing criminal justice systems that can operate regionally and internationally.

Components

The project is articulated in four main components:

1. Regional networks

CT INFLOW strives to build strategic coordination levels and networks, enhancing interlinks and strengthening ownership of project activities and their results. A high-level ownership and validation is paramount for the initiative to operate effectively and produce the expected results.

Additionally, the project lays the groundwork to create and develop networks of practitioners specialised in counter-terrorism. These networks promote information exchange and support a harmonised understanding of terrorism.

Under this component, the project has established the EU and MENA Information Sharing and Analysis (EMISA) network. The EMISA network is composed of 8 working groups focused on specific counter-terrorism and violent extremism areas to bring together EU and MENA specialist from the respective national services and authorities, in order to exchange expertise and first-hand experiences.

2. Training activities

In the framework of the CT INFLOW project, CEPOL instigates synergies between different operational units when they are identifying their training needs. The perfect instrument to do so is the Operational Training Needs Analysis (OTNA), which refers to the analysis of the training needs of beneficiary countries in terms of thematic areas, quantity and quality.

The results of the OTNA have allowed CEPOL to develop solid training priorities based on the concept of blended learning, a methodology that combines traditional face-to-face activities with online learning. In this context, CEPOL aims to deliver both onsite activities at regional and sub-regional level as well as e-learning activities.

Moreover, an exchange programme based on individual exchanges, study visits and a mentoring programme encourages the sharing of good practices and expertise among the law enforcement community of the beneficiary countries.

3. Criminal justice response

The activities under this component focus on:

Regional and international conventions in counter-terrorism;
Bilateral and regional agreements;
National and regional dynamics - good practices in inter-service cooperation;
The role of fundamental rights in pre-trial and trial phases.

4. MENA Terrorism Situation and Trends Report (TE-SAT) and technical supply

This project component focuses on three key objectives, all of which are predicated on the need to enhance a common understanding of the threat assessment processes and their value, as well as to foster increased local ownership of the analytical processes and products:

Strengthening the network of CT analysts, through additional, targeted capacity building activities that may emerge during project implementation, in addition to those carried out under components 1 and 2 of this project;
Implementing a joint simulation exercise to foster regional cooperation to implement and take stock of skill gaps and needs, and encourage a common analytical culture;
Supporting a common methodological approach to regional terrorism situation assessment by promoting the exchange of knowledge at institutional level between the EU, the beneficiaries in the region, and the regional organisations concerned.