Over the last weeks, law enforcement, border guards and labour and tax authorities across Europe joined forces to identify and tackle labour exploitation. This recent edition of the EMPACT Joint Action Days targeted trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation purposes, with a special emphasis on the agricultural sector, gastronomy, and temporary work agencies. In […]
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Commission hails deal on Defence Mini-Omnibus and potential Ukraine participation in EU Defence Fund
The European Commission welcomes the political agreement reached last November 5 between the European Parliament and the Council, which opens the possibility for Ukraine to be associated with the €7.3 billion European Defence Fund (EDF). This represents an important step forward in EU–Ukraine defence cooperation and in strengthening Europe’s collective security and industrial resilience. It […]
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Operation Chargeback: 4.3 million cardholders affected, EUR 300 million in damages
On 4 November 2025, an international coordinated action day targeted three major fraud and money laundering networks as part of Operation “Chargeback.” Led by the Cybercrime Department (Landeszentralstelle Cybercrime) of the General Prosecutor’s Office (Generalstaatsanwaltschaft) in Koblenz, Germany, and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), the operation has been investigating these networks since December […]
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Frontex Concludes Contest to Counter Criminal Use of Drones at EU Borders
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has completed the final testing phase of its prize contest focused on countering the criminal use of drones at the EU’s borders. The trials were hosted by the Portuguese Air Force, at Campo de Tiro base, in Samora Correia, providing real-life conditions to assess the systems in […]
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Commission preliminarily finds TikTok and Meta in breach of their transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act
On October 24th, the European Commission preliminarily found both TikTok and Meta in breach of their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The Commission also preliminarily found Meta, for both Instagram and Facebook, in breach of its obligations to provide users simple mechanisms to notify illegal content, as well as […]
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Commission and High Representative present new Defence Roadmap to strengthen European defence capabilities
Last Thursday 16th, the Commission and the High Representative have proposed to EU Member States the ‘Preserving Peace – Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030‘, a comprehensive plan to strengthen European defence capabilities. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “The recent threats have shown that Europe is at risk. We have to protect every citizen and square centimetre […]
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Over 30 potential victims identified in action against human trafficking enabled online
From 15 to 19 September 2025, Europol supported the fourth edition of the EMPACT Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) Hackathon, an action week against human trafficking enabled online. It was led by Dutch authorities, with the support of Germany and the United Kingdom, and brought together 73 specialists from 26 countries across the world. Eurojust […]
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Fighting cybercrime: EU to sign UN Convention on cybercrime
Last October 13th, the Council adopted a decision authorising the European Commission and member states to sign a United Nations Convention against cybercrime. The Convention is an international treaty which puts in place common rules at global level to enhance cooperation on cybercrime and the exchange of evidence in electronic form for the purpose of […]
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Five central suspects arrested in whole-sale cocaine trafficking case
Between 1 and 2 October, the Colombian Police (Policia Nacional de Colombia) and the Spanish Guardia Civil, supported by Europol, targeted four key suspects, linked to the so-called Clan del Golfo, allegedly responsible for whole-sale cocaine trafficking operations from South America to Europe. In particular, the criminal network oversaw first-hand the production, transportation and distribution […]
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