Mid-term review confirms validity of 2022-2025 training priorities

The CEPOL European Union Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU-STNA) contributes to EU internal security with actionable results, so that law enforcement officials can stay ahead of crime.

The latest EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment Report 2022-2025, defined the strategic and EU-level training priorities, in line with the four-year cycle (2022-2025) of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT). It revealed eight core capability gaps (i.e. digital skills and the use of new technologies; high-risk criminal networks; financial investigations; cooperation, information exchange and interoperability, etc.), constituting the main areas in which law enforcement officials need capacity building and established 17 thematic clusters for EU-level priorities where training should be delivered during 2022-2025 to support the EU’s response to serious and organised crime and other threats to internal security.

During the first half of 2023, on the second year of the EU-STNA cycle, CEPOL conducted a mid-term review of the EU-STNA 2022-2025, which was presented on 9 November 2023 at the Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) Support Group. This mid-term review exercise is an important part of the process as it not only provides relevant information, but also offers insights on emerging needs that are influenced by the current economic and political environment.

The mid-term review confirms the validity of the EU-STNA 2022-2025 findings, showing that the core capability gaps remain fully valid in the context of the EU’s current security landscape.  Reflecting also the changes in the different crime areas, it suggests a slight update on the EU-level training priorities in terms of the priority order and contents of the thematic training areas:

EU-STNA mid-term review: Re-prioritisation of thematic training areas

Out of the 17 thematic priorities identified by the EU-STNA, six priorities maintained their initial placements: cyber-attacks (1), criminal finances, money laundering and asset recovery (2), and counter-terrorism (3) remain unchanged as the top three EU training priorities. Also, border management and maritime security (10), firearms trafficking (11), and external dimensions of European security (17) maintained their initial priority placements. The remaining 11 topics changed their priority ranking. Overall, the movement of priorities was moderate, suggesting the need for relatively minor adjustments of the EU training offer.

The mid-term review also identified 16 new training needs related to ten thematic training areas and the need to adjust 38 existing training needs on 13 different topics. While the purpose of the mid-term review mechanism is not to disrupt the list of training needs included in the first EU-STNA 2022-2025 report, the review suggests new thematic additions on top of those already identified. Further training needs concern cyber-attacks, counter-terrorism, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings, organised property crime, child sexual exploitation, border management and maritime security, and firearms trafficking.  Furthermore, the review findings strongly confirm the need and even indicate a potential increase in the importance of high-risk criminal networks (HRCN) to be reflected in most training activities (*).

Many of the new training needs are generated by the war in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood. As commonly understood, the war in Ukraine is impacting the security landscape in the EU and at the same time, affecting the EMPACT priority areas in both the short and long term (**). Nevertheless, the highest number of new training needs concerning one training area are related to cyber-attacks, recalling for further emphasis on criminal groups engaging in organised cybercrime, with particular attention on the emerging actors. Also, the mid-term review emphasises that EU law enforcement training providers must continue integrating the relevant aspects of fundamental rights in all training activities.

Read the full mid-term report here

Discover how CEPOL helps law enforcement officials stay ahead of crime here

(*) Earlier this year CEPOL also released an Operational Training Needs Analysis on HRCN, which outlines the main training topics in this area for EU law enforcement officials for the period 2024-2026.

(**) See also CEPOL’s Training Needs Analysis regarding the impact of the war in Ukraine, published in late 2022.