In 2024, 58 terrorist attacks were recorded in 14 EU Member States, with 34 completed, five failed and 19 prevented by authorities, according to the most recent Europol report.
Terrorism does not belong to the past. It was not frozen in memories of Paris or Brussels. It transformed, fragmented, digitized.
Europe has a long history of fighting terrorism – from Operation Verviersin 2015, to the large jihadist networks dismantled in the last decade. But the paradigm has changed. Today, terrorism no longer depends solely on hierarchical structures or training camps. It does not need physical borders or visible central commands. It appears in the bedrooms of radicalized teenagers online. It circulates through encrypted channels and is organized in closed forums.
It is a digital ecosystem, where radicalization is accelerated by algorithms, reinforced by ideological bubbles. A digital nihilism where violence does not serve a political project, it is the project itself. Young people who move between online communities marked by extreme misogyny, anti-Semitism, cult of violence and anti-Westernism.
If we compare it to the coordinated attacks of 2015 or 9/11, the difference is structural. Before, organized structures, external financing, complex logistics. Today, we have lone actors radicalized online, misuse of drones for reconnaissance or attack, blueprints of 3D printed weapons shared in dark webfinancing through cryptocurrencies and digital platforms, convergence between terrorism and organized crime. The threat has become decentralized, diffuse and more difficult to anticipate.
The new counterterrorism strategy presented last week by the European Commission does what was missing: it links terrorism to organized crime and illicit financing. It proposes closing loopholes in cryptocurrencies and digital payment systems. Strengthens cooperation with third countries. Invests in early prevention of youth radicalization and combating extremism online.
Part of the European debate has always hesitated between fears of securitism and fragmented responses. This hesitancy has created gray zones exploited by extremist networks operating in borderless digital spaces. It is not acceptable for terrorists to use cutting-edge technology, while our authorities often operate with fragmented structures and slow processes. It is not acceptable for cross-border cooperation to depend on the goodwill of the moment. And it is not acceptable for magistrates and police to face transnational networks with instruments designed to address threats from the last century.
The CDS, in the European Parliament, has a consistent track record in defending a more integrated and effective European security policy. We were involved in negotiating structuring instruments – from the European investigation decision, from electronic evidence to the interoperability of information systems – that reinforce European judicial and police cooperation – because we know that terrorism and organized crime precisely exploit coordination failures between jurisdictions. We will continue to work so that judicial and police authorities have the appropriate tools – legal, technological and operational – to investigate, prevent and act before the threat materializes.
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