The trade of drug and other illegal commodities continues to be a major income generator for transnational organised crime (TOC) networks; the transnational and mutant nature of criminal activities makes it necessary to confront their effects jointly.
EU’s internal security hinges on the actions deployed against fluxes of transnational criminal activities that may surge away from its borders but whose effects play out mainly within its very core. Hence, the EU has adopted a strategic agenda adapted to nowadays criminal activity in order to confront it and eradicate it. The joint effort of the EU member States that constitutes the core expertise providers for this proposal, responds to these geo-strategic reasons.
Tackling organised crime and especially drug trading is not only strategically significant in this sense, as it cuts a primary income source for transnational crime, but also a priority to protect EU’s public health. In this fight, establishing coordination on policy and operational tactics and actions between judicial and police systems of different nations and regions is mandatory to effectively tackling organised crime.
The EU Action Against Drugs and Organised Crime (EU-ACT) was designed to promote the comprehensive and balanced EU approach on drugs and enhance synergies with the EU policy cycle for organised and serious international crime, project activity under the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) is in line with the EU Drugs Strategy (2013-2020) and the European Agenda on Security (2015) and contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 16.a) and the 2016 UNGASS Outcome Document on the World Drug Problem and the 2012 Vienna Declaration.
EU-ACT aimed at building capacities to increase regional and trans-regional law enforcement cooperation and coordination in the fight against organised crime and trafficking activities along the heroin route, as well as supporting the development of drugs policy and drug demand reduction activities.
EU-ACT, which ended in December 2021, was implemented by FIIAPP in partnership with a consortium of law enforcement agencies from different EU Member States.
EU-ACT II, started in June 2023, for a duration of 4 years, and it is developed based on the results, lessons learned and recommendations of the previous phase, and it is implemented by FIIAPP (Spain), CIVIPOL (France) and Carabinieri (Italy).
EU-ACT II is one of the programmes under the umbrella of the Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP) of the European Union designed to be a more effective mechanism for the European Union to assist partner countries in their efforts to tackle transnational organised crime. It is also intended to serve as a vehicle for the EU and its Member States’ law enforcement authorities to achieve wider global reach.
The programme will function as a facility, in the spirit of similar EU programmes that provide demand-driven, tailor-made support to partner countries to respond to security threats such as terrorism and organised crime to enhance their capacities to address these threats from a rule of law perspective.
EU ACT II aims to apply a trans-regional approach by focusing on the countries along the different trajectories of the so-called Heroin Route from/to Afghanistan, and it will also broaden the geographical focus to reflect the changes driven by recent global and geopolitical crises.
EU ACT II will focus on
Enhanced capacity of law enforcement authorities to exchange information and conduct joint operations and investigations to tackle trans-regional organised crime.
Enhanced capacity of the judiciary to prosecute and adjudicate organised crime cases and enhanced transnational cooperation between criminal justice authorities.
Improved evidence-base, knowledge and analysis of the threats related to organised crime in the regions covered.
EU ACT II will provide support in line with its mandate to selected Operational Action Plans of EMPACT such as High-Risk criminal Networks (HRCN), Cannabis / Cocaine/ Heroin (CCH) and Synthetic drugs and NPS (SYD-NPS).
