Serious and Organised Crime in the EU: The EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) 2017

Abstract

Europol used its singular intelligence capability as the information hub for criminal intelligence in the EU to analyse and identify the key crime threats facing the EU today. Informed by its analysis of the prevailing threat, SOCTA 2017 identifies a number of key priorities, which, in Europol’s view, require the greatest concerted action by Member States and other actors to ensure the most effective impact. These include cybercrime, the production, trafficking and distribution of illicit drugs, migrant smuggling, organised property crime, and the trafficking in human beings (THB). In addition, Europol recommends focussing on three cross-cutting crime threats with a significant impact across the spectrum of serious and organised crime — document fraud, money laundering and the online trade in illicit goods and services. SOCTA 2017 also explores potential links between serious and organised crime and terrorism. The European Justice and Home Affairs Council will decide on the EU crime priorities at its meeting of June 2017.