Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Tackling crime in our digital age: Establishing a European Cybercrime Centre

The Internet has become an integral and indispensable part of our society and economy. Eighty percent of young Europeans connect with each other and the world through online social networks, and approximately USD $8 trillion changes hands globally each year in e-commerce. But as more and more of our everyday lives and business transactions happen online, so too does criminal activity - more than one million people worldwide become victims of cybercrime every day. Online criminal activity ranges from selling stolen credit cards for as little as one euro, to identity-theft and child sexual abuse, to serious cyber attacks against institutions and infrastructure.

The freedom of the Internet is the key factor in explaining the digital revolution of recent years. Our open Internet knows neither national boundaries nor a single global governance structure. But while promoting and protecting this online freedom in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, we must also strive to protect citizens from the organised criminal gangs who seek to exploit such openness. No crime is as borderless as cybercrime, requiring law enforcement authorities to adopt a coordinated and collaborative approach across national borders, together with public and private stakeholders alike. It is here that the EU can, and does, add significant value.

The fight against cybercrime, for which the main legal instrument is the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, continues to be a top priority. It is identified in the EU policy cycle for organised and serious international crime, and forms an integral part of efforts to develop an overarching EU strategy to strengthen cyber-security. The EU has also engaged closely with international partners, for example, through the ongoing EU-US working group on cyber-security and cybercrime.

Such progress aside, there are still several obstacles to the effective investigation of cybercrime and prosecution of offenders at European level. These include: jurisdictional boundaries, insufficient intelligence-sharing capabilities, technical difficulties in tracing the origins of cybercrime perpetrators, disparate investigative and forensic capacities, scarcity of trained staff, and inconsistent cooperation with other stakeholders responsible for cyber-security.

In response to these challenges, the Commission indicated its intention to create a European Cybercrime Centre as a priority of the Internal Security Strategy. Having conducted a feasibility study on the creation of such a centre, at the request of the Council, the Commission proposes a European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), which will be part of Europol and act as the focal point in the fight against cybercrime in the EU.

This Communication drawing on the feasibility study outlines the proposed core functions of the European Cybercrime Centre, explains why it should be located in Europol, and how it can be established. Resource implications will however need to be further assessed and provided for before the EC3 can become fully operational. The establishment of this Centre will be reflected, as appropriate, in the upcoming revision of Europol's legal basis.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)140: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:140:FIN

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