Strategic training needs assessments

CEPOL’s Regulation mandates our Agency to incorporate training needs assessments and analyses in our planning.

To this end, we conduct strategic training needs assessments to identify strategic level training priorities in the area of internal security for EU law enforcement officials.

The EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU-STNA) is developed to identify gaps in knowledge, skills and competencies among law enforcement officials. It aims to ensure qualitative and consistent training for law enforcement to close gaps between training needs and the training currently available in the EU during the four years following the release of the report (EMPACT cycle).

The analysis and recommendations outlined in the report are the result of a participative process, including extensive consultations with policy makers and experts across the EU. To conduct this major multiannual diagnostic exercise, CEPOL polls a vast number of organisations and undertakes extensive desk research of strategic documents.

To explore the latest strategic training priorities of law enforcement training please discover the interactive EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment 2026–2029 Report.

How is the EU-STNA completed?

EU-STNA consists in step-by-step analysis of strategic level EU documents detailing crime threats that were then discussed in expert and focus groups by Member State and EU specialists with a view to extract capability gaps and training needs that should be addressed by training implemented at EU level. The list of EU-level training needs is then prioritised by Member States. The EU-STNA report provides an overview of horizontal and thematic areas enlisting the capability challenges and related training needs of law enforcement in priority order. The Report guides training providers to build up their training portfolio and helps avoid overlaps in training delivery at EU level.