Abstract:
The EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TESAT)
was established in the aftermath of the 11
September 2001 attacks in the United States as a
reporting mechanism from the EU Council’s
Terrorism Working Party (TWP) to the European
Parliament. The first five editions of the TE-SAT
were presented by the respective Presidencies of
the EU Council, “based on a file and on the analyses
supplied by Europol” from member states’
contributions.1
At the beginning of 2006, Europol proposed to
widen the data collection for the TE-SAT in order
to enhance the quality of the report. The proposal
was endorsed by the Justice and Home Affairs
Council on 1 and 2 June 2006, and TE-SAT 2007
was based on a new methodology developed by
Europol in consultation with the advisory board of
2006, consisting of the Finnish and German
Presidencies, Eurojust and SitCen (the EU Joint
Situation Centre).2
For TE-SAT 2008, the scope of the report has been
slightly modified regarding the qualitative data,
allowing the member states to report on criminal
acts committed by extremists. This change has
been made in consultation with the advisory
board of TE-SAT 2008, consisting of the Portuguese
and Slovenian Presidencies, Eurojust and SitCen.
In accordance with ENFOPOL 65 (8196/2/06), the
TE-SAT is an unclassified annual document which
provides information on the phenomenon of terrorism
in the EU. The TE-SAT discusses terrorism
from a law enforcement point of view, i.e. as a
“crime”, although terrorism is fundamentally a
political phenomenon driven by political motives
and oriented toward political ends.
The TE-SAT is a situation report which describes
and analyses the outward manifestations of terrorism,
i.e. terrorist attacks and activities. It neither
attempts to analyse the root causes of terrorism
nor to assess the threat posed by terrorism.
Furthermore, the TE-SAT does not assess the
impact or effectiveness of counter-terrorism policies
and law enforcement measures taken, despite
the fact that they form an important part of the
phenomenon.
The TE-SAT is an EU report and, as such, aims at
providing an overview of the situation in the EU
rather that describing the situation in individual
member states. It seeks to establish basic facts
and figures regarding terrorist attacks, arrests and
activities in the EU.
The TE-SAT is also a trend report. Since a trend can
be defined as a general tendency in the way a situation
is changing or developing, the TE-SAT is a
forward-looking report. As TE-SAT 2007 was the
first report based on the new methodology, no
comparison with previous years was possible.
Consequently, TE-SAT 2008 is the first edition that
attempts an analysis of trends.
The TE-SAT is based mainly on information contributed
by the member states concerning and
resulting from criminal investigations into terrorist
offences. The TE-SAT does not contain information
which is classified or which could jeopardise
ongoing investigations.
