Abstract:
In response to The Hague Programme, as concluded
by the European Council in November
2004, in particular its emphasis on the need for
a future oriented assessment of organised crime
(OC) to support law enforcement efforts in the
European Union (EU), it was decided to replace
the Organised Crime Report (OCR) with the
Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA). The
first OCTA was endorsed by the Council during
their meeting on 1-2 June 2006.
The OCTA covers the EU. However, it can not be
neglected that Europe, due to its geography and
its cultural, social and historical differences, is
not a homogeneous structure and so may also
require a regional priority setting. Therefore,
although the European dimension is the prime
focus, the OCTA also accounts for regional divergences.
In order to enhance the understanding
of events within the EU, consideration of the
international arena is at times necessary.
To allow comparisons in this area, creating a
ranking of OC groups and phenomena is a major
challenge, not only for methodological reasons.
Nevertheless, the OCTA uses indicators in different
areas which, if evaluated together, will identify
the threat level from a European perspective.
The OCTA does not reflect on all existing OC
groups or crime types, but the application of specific
criteria allows for a pre-selection of the most
relevant criminal phenomena.
To support decision-makers in the best possible
way, the OCTA provides a well-targeted qualitative
assessment of the threat from OC. The OCTA
is based on a multi-source approach, including
law enforcement and non-law enforcement contributions.
These include various European agencies
as well as the private sector. A specific
emphasis is put on elaborating the benefits of an
intensified public-private partnership. The OCTA
helps to close the gap between strategic findings
and operational activities. The OCTA helps to
identify the highest priorities, which will then be
effectively tackled with the appropriate law
enforcement instruments. The OCTA suggests
strategic priorities, but it needs to be realised that
the OCTA itself is not detailed enough to pinpoint
specific criminal investigations.
The OCTA is always being enhanced.
Methodological and other issues are continuously
being addressed in close co-operation with the
Member States to allow for the further enhancement
of the OCTA. The methodology and procedures
for its completion have been amended,
and this has had a positive result in terms of
quality of the contributions submitted to the
report and the way in which the contributions
are processed and analysed. Overall, the changes
which have been introduced have all contributed
to enhancing the quality of the OCTA.
The OCTA does not cover terrorism or terrorist
networks. These issues are touched upon when
they are relevant for the study of OC, however
due to the particularities involved in the field of
terrorism, the area is being covered as a separate
issue.
