After RearmEu and Readiness 2030, here comes ProtectEu. Brussels unveils new homeland security strategy

Brussels – The European Commission completes its vision of a Union that—borrowing the words of Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen—enters a “new era of defence and security”. The third building block, after the Defense White Paper (Readiness 2030) and the Strategy on crisis preparedness, is ProtectEu, a comprehensive plan to strengthen the internal security of the EU bloc. Among other things, it plans to strengthen several European agencies (Europol, Eurojust, Frontex), facilitate online data access for police forces, and usher in a “new security diplomacy.”

It was presented today (April 1) in Strasbourg by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, and von der Leyen’s deputy responsible for technological sovereignty, security, and democracy. The starting point, Brunner said, is “the need to change mindsets and ways of thinking about security.” The European Commission has identified six areas for action: increasing threat awareness, improving law enforcement, building greater resilience against hybrid threats, combating organised crime, countering terrorism, and insisting on global security partnerships.

According to Europol, the EU’s agency for law enforcement cooperation, 85 per cent of criminal investigations in member countries rely on “the ability of authorities to access digital information” because almost all forms of organised crime leave fingerprints. Therefore, the EU will propose a roadmap for legal and effective access to data for law enforcement, accompanied by an impact assessment to update existing data retention rules. “We will find balanced solutions” to guarantee the right to privacy, Brunner assured.

Hand in hand, the problem must be addressed whereby, while organised crime is increasingly cross-border, action by the relevant authorities too often stops at national borders. ProtectEu “aims to give police forces the tools they need to act,” the commissioner explained. Anticipating that the EU will propose “next year” a review of the mandates of Europol and Frontex, the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency. For the latter—from a counterterrorism perspective—in addition to strengthening competencies, it is planned to triple its staff to 30,000.

Europol, on the other hand, in the Commission’s strategy, will be transformed into a “truly operational” police agency equipped with more resources and innovative tools for complex cross-border investigations, in close contact with member states, but also with other EU agencies, such as Eurojust (the Judicial Cooperation Agency), Eppo (the European Public Prosecutor’s Office) and Enisa (the Cybersecurity Agency). Europol’s increased support should also strengthen member states’ capabilities to conduct effective investigations through digital forensics, decryption, processing increasing amounts of data, and operational use of emerging and innovative technologies.

But the “strong and coordinated” response called for by Virkkunen goes beyond the European level. In essence, dusting off a slogan that former EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson had made her own, “We need a network to defeat a network.” Brunner, who took over her baton, stressed the importance of “being international,” seeking “new partnerships” and the involvement of third countries to combat pervasive organised crime networks. The goal is to “create joint operational teams with the police authorities of partner countries,” following the example of the cooperation agreement signed just a month ago by the Brazilian Federal Police and Europol. The EU also aims to “accelerate” the integration of EU candidate countries into the Union’s security architecture.