COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EMPACT, the flagship EU instrument for cooperation to fight organised and serious international crime Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025
Date: 2021-04-14
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: EU strategy, European security, application of EU law, area of freedom, security and justice, exchange of information, fight against crime, information security, organised crime

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 14.4.2021  SWD(2021) 74 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EMPACT, the flagship EU instrument for cooperation to fight organised and serious international crime Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025 {COM(2021) 170 final}  
 
 
1.  EMPACT, a collective step towards protecting citizens and the society 

The “EU Policy Cycle for organised and serious international crime”, more commonly known 
as  EMPACT  (the  European  Multidisciplinary  Platform  Against  Criminal  Threats”)1,  was 
adopted  by  the  EU  in  20102.  Its  conception  was  the  result  of  the  “Harmony”  project  –  “A 
generic European Crime Intelligence Model”3, aiming at bringing the gap between European 
and  national  crime  strategies  and  between  political  decisions  and  the  way  law  enforcement 
agencies convert them into operational actions. It was initiated by Belgium with the support of 
the  European  Commission’s  Framework  Partnership  Agreement  “Prevention  of  and  fight 
against crime”.  

EMPACT aims to tackle the most important serious and organised criminal threats affecting 
the EU and the safety of its citizens, by  creating the conditions for cooperation between the 
relevant services of the EU Member States, EU Institutions and EU Agencies as well as third 
countries and organisations, including the private sector where relevant4.  

EMPACT  works  in  4  years  cycles.  Every  4  years,  Europol  first  produces  the  so-called 
European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU SOCTA), on the basis 
of  extensive  input  provided  by  Member  States  and  other  relevant  stakeholders.  The  EU 
SOCTA  identifies  the  major  criminal  threats  affecting  the  EU  and  possible  EU  crime 
priorities. The EU SOCTA is then used by the European Commission and the Presidency of 
the  Council  of  the  EU  to  advise  Home  Affairs  ministers  so  that  they  adopt  EU  crime 
priorities,  which  EMPACT  will  fight  in  the  next  4  years.  On  this  basis,  Member  States, 
supported  by  EU  Agencies  and  other  relevant  stakeholders,  design  joint  operational  action 
plans  to  address  the  selected  EU  crime  priorities,  and  organise  joint  actions.  The  process  is 
constantly  monitored  and  fully  evaluated  at  the  end  of  each  cycle.  EMPACT  is  currently 
mainly funded by the Europol budget (around EUR 4 million per year) and this Agency hosts 
the EMPACT support team, which provides administrative and logistical support.  

EU Member States retain the overall drivership of EMPACT5 and organise on average more 
than  200  joint  operational  actions  on  a  yearly  basis,  with  the  support  of  EU  institutions, 
agencies and bodies, and together with a wide variety of partners – police units, gendarmeries, 
customs,  tax  authorities,  magistrates,  international  organizations,  NGOs,  third  parties,  etc. 
These  actions  cover  a  wide  variety  of  topics  and  aim  at  achieving  pre-defined  common 

1 The “EU Policy Cycle for organised and serious international crime” used to define the cooperation framework 
for  setting  common  priorities,  “EMPACT”  being  the  operational  platform  enabling  cooperation  between 
practitioners. “EMPACT” has now become the sole name to designate the two concepts. 
2 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/117583.pdf.  
3 https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-14851-2010-INIT/en/pdf.  
4 

https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/police-cooperation/operational-

cooperation/empact_en. 

5 According to the EMPACT terms of reference (Council document 14884/1/18/REV 1), beyond the supervising 
role  of  the  Standing  Committee  on  Operational  Cooperation  on  Internal  Security  (COSI),  only  EU  Member 
States can be appointed as “driver” of an Operational Action Plan. EU Member States or an EU Agency can be 
appointed  as  “co-driver(s)”.  The  European  Commission  as  well  as  third  countries/parties  can  be  appointed  as 
“action leader(s)”, under the responsibility of the “Driver”. 

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horizontal strategic goals6 (for instance gathering an up to date intelligence picture on certain 
crimes,  conducting  investigations  and  trainings,  organising  cyber-patrolling  weeks  against 
child  sexual  exploitation,  organising  joint  actions  against  criminal  itinerant  groups  active  in 
organised property crimes, against drugs trafficking, etc.) 

EMPACT consists of four steps: 

  Step 1: policy development based on a European Union Serious and Organised Crime 
Threat  Assessment  (EU  SOCTA)  prepared  by  Europol,  which  must  provide  for  a 
complete and thorough picture of criminal threats affecting the European Union. 

  Step 2: policy setting and decision-making through the identification by the Council of 
a limited number of priorities, based on a Policy Advisory  Document drafted by the 
Presidency and the European Commission services. 

  Step  3:  implementation  and  monitoring  of  annual  Operational  Action  Plans  (OAPs) 
based  on  the  Multi-Annual  Strategic  Plan  (MASP).  The  relevant  EU  Member  States 
integrate the actions developed in the OAPs into their national planning and allocate 
appropriate  resources  to  support  a  common  EU  approach.  The  relevant  EU  agencies 
commit in their annual work programmes to implement the actions developed within 
EMPACT and make the specific budgetary provisions. 

  Step  4:  at  the  end  of  each  cycle,  an  independent  evaluation  is  conducted  by  the 

European Commission and serves as an input for the next cycle. 

The key features of EMPACT are7: 

  The  intelligence-led  approach8  based  on  a  future-oriented  and  targeted  approach  to 
crime  control,  focusing  upon  the  identification,  analysis  and  ‘management’  of 
persisting and developing ‘problems’ or ‘risks’ of crime;  

  The integrated character, best using and aligning the complementary contributions of 
all  multidisciplinary  and  multi-agency  actors  from  Member  States  (e.g.  police, 
gendarmerie, customs, tax authorities, administrative bodies, magistrates, networks of 
law  enforcement  professionals,  etc.),  EU  institutions  and  agencies,  relevant  third 
countries  and  organisations  (public  and  private),  i.e.  developing  and  establishing 
optimal partnerships; and  

6 In the current EMPACT cycle (2018-2021), there are 7 common strategic goals applying to all crime priorities: 
1. intelligence picture / 2. operational activities / 3. prevention and capacity building / 4. cooperation with non-
EU  partners  (third  countries,  international  organisations)  /  5.  document  fraud  /  6.  financial  investigations  /  7. 
online trade in illicit goods & services. 
7 Document 14884/1/18 REV 1 – EU Policy Cycle Terms of Reference. 
8  The  EU  formally  endorsed  “Intelligence-Led  Policing”  (ILP)  in  2005.  Since  then,  common  EU  strategic 
planning and operational action plans to tackle organized crime have been developed with the ILP approach. The 
EU Policy Cycle for Serious and Organized Crime, adopted in 2010, is considered an example of good practice 
for  addressing  transnational  organized  crime  in  line  with  the  principles  of  ILP.  Source:  ‘OSCE  guidebook  on 
intelligence-led policing’ (https://www.osce.org/secretariat/455563). 

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  The multi-disciplinary, integrated and integral approach to target the multiple ‘levers’ 
of serious and organised crime, i.e. addressing all levels by which a phenomenon can 
be  influenced.  This  means  using  measures  and  actions  both  of  a  preventive  and  a 
repressive  nature,  as  well  as  proactive  and  reactive  measures,  both  of  a  strategic 
(trying  to  impact  the  threat)  and  operational  (trying  to  impact  the  organised  crime 
groups/networks and criminals) nature.  

The current EMPACT Cycle started in January 2018 and will last until December 2021. The 
next EMPACT Cycle will start in January 2022 and last until December 2025.  

2.  The conclusions and recommendations of the independent evaluation of EMPACT 

The  latest  independent  evaluation  of  EMPACT,  entrusted  to  the  European  Commission, 
concluded in 2020 that this EU instrument is relevant, effective and increasingly efficient, and 
that  it  proves  to  be  internally  and  externally  coherent.  It  also  brings  EU  added  value  by 
providing a sound platform for co-operation that enables EU Member States to achieve better 
operational results against serious and organised crime, than if they had tackled them alone9.  

Over  the  years,  EMPACT  has  consistently  been  delivering  significant  results  in  every  EU 
crime  priorities10.  In  2019,  EMPACT  led  to  8,000  arrests,  more  than  1,400  victims  of 
trafficking  in  human  beings  and  child  sexual  abuse  safeguarded,  EUR  400  million  in  fraud 
affecting the interests of the EU prevented, 6,000 weapons seized, EUR 77 million worth of 
criminal  assets  frozen  and  seized,  and  many  more  achievements  in  various  fields  such  as 
intelligence  picture,  training  and  capacity  building,  prevention,  cooperation  with  non-EU 
partners, fighting online crime and arresting high-value targets11. EMPACT keeps delivering 
very tangible operational results against organized crime across Europe and in  priority third 
countries, including during “Joint Action Days” supported by EU Agencies, such as Europol 
and Frontex12. 

There  is  a  common  understanding  among  law  enforcement  authorities  that  the  fight  against 
organised crime requires a common partnership approach at EU level, because of the scale of 
the crime threats,  of their significance and consequences on the safety of EU  citizen, of the 
risk of criminal infiltration in the legal economy, and of the behaviour of criminal structures. 
It  is  also  clear,  after  two  independent  evaluations  of  the  instrument  conducted  in  2016  and 
2020 that, over the years, EMPACT has led to an ever-improving EU cooperation to address 
collectively priority criminal issues, combining in a structured methodology all the necessary 
steps  such  as  detection,  prevention,  investigation,  prosecution  and  seizure  of  forfeited 

9 Independent evaluation – documents 11992/20 (EU LIMITE) + ADD1 (EU-RESTRICTED) & 11993/20 (EU LIMITE). 
10  For  the period 2018-2021:  Cybercrime,  Drugs  trafficking,  Facilitation  of  illegal  immigration,  Organised  property  crime, 
Trafficking in human beings (for all forms  of exploitation, including sexual and labour exploitation as well as all forms of 
child  trafficking),  Excise  and  MTIC  fraud,  Illicit  firearms  trafficking,  Environmental  crime,  Criminal  finances  and  money 
laundering & Document fraud. 
11 https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-7623-2020-INIT/en/pdf. 
12 Joint Action Days (JADs) are cross-border joint operations organised during a limited period of time and focusing on key 
crime  hotspots  and  criminal  networks  across  the  European  Union.  The  operations  are  carried  out  within  the  EMPACT 
https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/352-stolen-vehicles-seized-in-jad-
framework. 
mobile-3-operation-spanning-across-22-countries. 

Example: 

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criminal assets, and capacity building. EMPACT brings coherence in the fight against crime 
at  EU  level,  as  recognised  by  the  recent  Council  Conclusions  on  Internal  Security  and 
European Police Partnership13.  

Nevertheless, as it currently stands, EMPACT is not used to its full potential and its impact on 
organised  crime,  though  very  tangible,  remains  relatively  small.  In  particular,  its  perceived 
administrative complexity, significant variance in terms of participation, and its underfunding 
does  not  always  ensure  the  ownership  and  active  involvement  of  Member  States,  result  in 
high  staff  turnover,  and  is  not  always  suitable  for  the  development  of  more  complex 
operational  actions.  Additionally,  existing  national  and  EU  strategies  still  do  not  always 
embed EMPACT.  

3. 

Making EMPACT the EU flagship instrument to fight organised and serious 

international crime. 

The  Commission  services  consider  that  EMPACT  has  the  potential  to  become  the  key  EU 
flagship instrument for cooperation at EU level to fight organised crime. In order to remedy 
its  identified  shortcomings,  the  Commission  services  will  seek  to  implement  the  following 
actions:  

First,  the  Commission  services  will  investigate  the  feasibility,  through  a  dedicated  study,  to 
cast the EMPACT mechanism and framework into EU legislation, based on evidence and 
backed up by the views of all relevant stakeholders. The  Commission services welcome the 
February 2021 Council Conclusions establishing EMPACT as a permanent instrument14, as a 
first step in the right direction to improve the sustainability of EMPACT, while maintaining 
its flexibility with the periodic review of EU crime priorities. However, more will be needed 
in  order  to  establish  truly  EMPACT  as  a  key  operational  cooperation  instrument  to  fight 
organised and serious international crime at EU level.  

An  EMPACT  legislation  would  allow  EMPACT  to  become  a  fully  recognised  EU 
cooperation  instrument  to  fight  organised  and  serious  international  crime,  attracting  the 
necessary funding and human resources to  implement  it in  a more efficient  way. Moreover, 
making  EMPACT  a  permanent  well-established  cooperation  framework  would  support  a 
better alignment and embedment of national and EU strategies and action plans (for instance 
on  drugs,  firearms,  trafficking  in  human  being,  migrant  smuggling).  This  should  also  help 
improve the level of ownership and active involvement of Member States in EMPACT. 

Second,  the  Commission  services  will  seek  to  significantly  reinforce  the  funding  of 
EMPACT. On top of preserving the yearly EUR 4 million EMPACT envelope in Europol’s 
budget, the Commission services will earmark an envelope dedicated to EMPACT activities 
via a Specific Action within the new “Thematic Facility”, a flexible instrument created under 

13  The  Council  Conclusions  13083/1/20  on  Internal  Security  and  European  Police  Partnership,  in  their  annex  1  ‘Council 
Conclusions on enhancing cross-border law enforcement cooperation’, stresses the relevance and underlying added value of 
EMPACT. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-13083-2020-REV-1/en/pdf. 
14 Council conclusions 6481/21 on the permanent continuation of the EU Policy Cycle for organised and serious international 
crime:  EMPACT  2022+  of  26  February  2021  (https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6481-2021-
INIT/en/pdf).   

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the new Internal Security Fund (ISF). Moreover, the Commission services strongly encourage 
EU Member States to include EMPACT-related initiatives in their ISF National Programmes 
for the period 2021-2027. 

Third,  the  current  description  of  the  four  steps15  of  the  EMPACT  methodology  remain  too 
technocratic  and  process-oriented  to  attract  the  attention  of  investigators,  magistrates  and 
organised crime experts in Member States. The Commission services will therefore explore, 
together with all relevant EMPACT stakeholders the possibility to  modernise and upgrade 
the  current  EMPACT  four  steps  with  a  more  understandable  four-pillar  sequence, 
complemented by a series of eight key specific guiding principles against organised crime16: 

1.  OBSERVE, DETECT & ORIENT (instead of “policy development”) 

•  Guiding principle: Security/Safety (1) 

Criminal  threats,  including  new  and  emerging  threats,  should  be  detected,  analysed  and 
understood  by  law  enforcement  authorities  in  order  to  respond  to  them  effectively.  The 
comprehensive knowledge of the crime threats  and of the criminal  groups active in  the EU, 
via  an  intelligence-based  approach  with  the  EU  SOCTA  prepared  by  Europol,  a  solid 
planning, and the implementation  of the next steps of EMPACT should increase the overall 
“security” of the EU and the “safety” of its citizens. 

2.  DECIDE & PLAN TOGETHER (instead of “policy setting and decision-making”) 

•  Guiding  principles:  Common  and  clear  objectives  (2)  –  Mass  effect  (3)  – 

Economy of force (4) 

EU political decision makers need to agree on “common and clear objectives”, i.e. EU crime 
priorities and horizontal strategic goals. Then, EU Member States competent authorities, and 
partners, combine forces to create a “mass effect”, which increase their chances of success in 
all  areas.  They  design  together  operational  action  plans  (OAPs),  jointly  employing  all 
available means in the most effective and judicious way possible (“economy of force”). 

3.  FIGHT, (PREVENT) & DISRUPT (instead of “implementation”) 

•  Guiding principles:  Unity  of direction (5)  – Freedom  of action (6) – Surprise 

(7) 

Member  States  must  seek  “unity  of  direction”  under  the  leadership  of  an  appointed  single 
entity.  They  agree  to  appoint  only  one  ‘Driver’  responsible  for  each  EU  crime  priority, 

15  I)  Policy  development  based  on  a  European  Union  Serious  and  Organised  Crime  Threat  Assessment  (EU 
SOCTA). II) Policy setting and decision-making through the identification by the Council of a limited number of 
priorities  and  a  General  Multi-Annual  Strategic  Plan  (MASP)  with  Common  Horizontal  Strategic  Goals 
(CHSGs).  IV)  Implementation  and  monitoring  of  annual  Operational  Action  Plans  (OAPs).  IV)  Independent 
evaluation. 
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/30232/qc0114638enn.pdf. 
16  This  approach  builds  on  the  multi-disciplinary,  multi-level,  and  holistic  approach,  already  developed  and 
implemented by Member States in EMPACT. The four pillars encompass the permanent EMPACT mechanism 
as a whole – “EMPACT reloaded” – and aims at underpinning the interdependence of EU Member States – and 
their essential cooperation thereof, including with third partners – when addressing common criminal threats and 
uprooting organized crime structures. 

5 

 
 
 
 
                                                           
 
supported  by  ‘co-Drivers’,  and  a  ‘supervisor’  for  each  horizontal  strategic  goal.  Member 
States  –  supported  by  EU  Agencies,  institutions  and  bodies  –  maintain  their  “freedom  of 
action”  through  the  autonomous  implementation  of  their  Operational  Action  Plans. 
Coordinated  activities  and  investigations,  as  well  as  carefully  planned  Joint  Action  Days 
(JADs) should ensure a “surprise” effect by striking the criminals at a time, place, and manner 
for which they are unprepared.  

4.  HOLD, LEARN & REPEAT (instead of “monitoring and evaluation”) 

•  Guiding principle: Continuity (8) 

Fighting serious and organised crime requires “continuity”, which takes shape through actions 
repeatedly designed and implemented until the rule of law prevails and the legal economy is 
secured. EMPACT stakeholders must hold the advantages they have gained, learn from their 
possible mistakes, improve, and repeat their actions. The operational and strategic information 
exchanged  through  Europol17  –  “the  EU  criminal  information  hub”  –  should  improve  the 
understanding of EU crime threats and the effective operational support and expertise that the 
Agency provides to investigations. A constant evaluation and feedback should feed the overall 
process. The network of National EMPACT Coordinators (NECs) should offer coherence of 
strategy and actions both at national and at EU level. 

Fourth,  for  the  implementation  of  the  above  steps  2  and  3  of  the  EMPACT  sequence,  the 
Commission  services  will  explore,  together  with  all  relevant  EMPACT  stakeholders  the 
possibility  to  extend  the  use  of  the  “EMPACT  Matrix”  started  in  the  present  EMPACT 
cycle, in order to (a) answer the call from Member States to disrupt the criminal structures in 
addition to already existing efforts to fight individual crime areas and (b) to allow for a better 
alignment, consistency and coherence between the operational activities dedicated to each EU 
crime  priority,  and  to  improve  the  cross-sectorial  knowledge  between  them.  All  EU  crime 
priorities  (for  instance:  drugs  trafficking,  trafficking  in  human  beings,  high-risk  criminal 
structures, etc.) should have one or more operational action plans, containing activities which 
are  tied  together  by  common  horizontal  strategic  goals  (for  instance:  gathering  of  an 
intelligence  picture,  operational  activities  targeting  high-value  targets,  targeting  crime 
enablers  such  as  criminal  finance,  or  document  fraud,  training,  joint  investigations, 
cooperation with non-EU partners, etc.)18. 

The graph below shows an example of the EMPACT Matrix encouraged by the Commission 
services: 

17 Mainly using the information exchange tools provided by Europol, such as the Secure Information Exchange 
Network Application (SIENA), the Europol Platform for Experts (EPE), the Europol Information System (EIS), 
etc. 
18 After the political choice of EU crime priorities for the next EMPACT cycle (2022-2025), Member States, EU 
Agencies  and  relevant  EMPACT  stakeholders  will  design  Common  Horizontal  Strategic  Goals  during  a 
workshop  organised  by  the  European  Commission  in  June  2021.  These  strategic  goals  will  be  included  in  a 
single Multi-Annual Strategic Plan (MASP). 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                           
Fifth,  in  order  to  reinforce  the  pan-European  security  network  and  the  multidisciplinary 
approach of EMPACT, the Commission services will seek to increasingly rely on European 
law enforcement networks and expert groups to implement the operational action plans set 
out  per  EU  crime  priority  in  EMPACT.  Those  networks  working  on  organised  crime  and 
financially  supported  by  the  Commission,  will  be  required  to  commit  in  their  work 
programmes to support the EMPACT stakeholders in implementing joint activities.  

Sixth  and  last,  in  order  to  expand  the  external  dimension  of  EMPACT  and  the 
cooperation both with third countries and at global level to address common challenges 
– an approach which is central to an effective and comprehensive response to organised crime 
–  the  Commission  services,  together  with  the  European  External  Action  Service  (EEAS) 
through  the  Political  High  Level  Dialogues  and  the  Counter-Terrorism/Security  Experts 
Network, will promote the increased association of third countries to EMPACT activities and 
the  development  of  the  EMPACT  methodology  outside  the  EU.  Conscious  of  the  need  to 
adapt to national and regional realities, needs and constraints, this development of the external 
dimension  of  EMPACT  will  materialise  through  the  establishment  of  “SOCTA”-type  threat 
assessments  in  neighbouring  countries,  regional  cooperation  and  activities  with  the Western 
Balkans19, with Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and the Southern neighbourhood, with all 
relevant  international  cooperation  programmes  funded  by  the  EU,  such  as  the  Europe  Latin 
America  Technical  Assistance  Programme  against  Transnational  Organized  Crime  (EL 
PAcCTO) and EUROMED Justice and Police programmes.  

19 Joint press statement EU - Western Balkans Ministerial forum on Justice and Home Affairs (23 October 2020). 

7