Insufficient expertise in the areas of open source intelligence, financial investigations or e-evidence are just a few from the list of identified core capability gaps among EU’s law enforcement*, which need to be addressed by training. It would strengthen EU’s response against internal security threats, while helping to safeguard the EU values – calls the EU-STNA report of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) presented this week in the Council of the European Union.
The Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU STNA) addressed these days to both Council’s Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) and to the meeting of Executive Directors of EU Justice and Home Affairs Agencies in Vilnius, also suggests such training to address deficiencies in the areas of information exchange and cross-border cooperation.
Referring to the document, Detlef Schröder, CEPOL’s Executive Director, underlines some key features an ideal EU law enforcement training shall provide:
“Training is essential to allow authorities on the ground to exploit the tools in an operational situation. It needs to take into account not only recent policy developments or criminal modus operandi innovations but also a deeper insight into technology changes, especially digitalisation. Ideally, it would bring together not only law enforcement officials but also prosecution, judiciary, tax authorities or even private parties, especially from the banking or NGO sectors. That would provide an exchange of good practices on the one hand and improved convergence on the other. So, that is what we are aiming at in CEPOL.”
To build an efficient and coordinated training portfolio addressing internal security threats of the EU, the report suggests performing the following actions between actors involved:
Finally, all three European Institutions with whom the findings of the EU-STNA report have been shared (European Commission, Council of the EU and the European Parliament) have been invited to provide strategic guidance and set up law enforcement training priorities for 2019-2021.
Cross-border multidisciplinary and interdepartmental cooperation and training are critical to a successful fight against serious and organised crime and terrorism.
* The core capability gaps of law enforcement officials that can and shall be addressed by training include the following cross cutting thematic categories:
As well as information exchange and cross-border cooperation related:
Office address
European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training
1066 Budapest
Ó utca 27
Hungary
Correspondence address
European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training
1903 Budapest
Pf.314
Hungary
Telephone: +36 1 803 8030/8031
Fax: +36 1 803 8032