http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 248 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 10 / 2017 of key tools in the fight against terrorism may not be deemed an effective response while all actors involved are not able to access these and to be interconnected. A. EUROPOL In close cooperation with the relevant EU and Member State bodies, Europol is mandated with the task of undertaking exhaustive analyses of the threats to security that must be addressed as regards the future EU strategy.40 In this respect, given the significant threat to the internal security of the EU posed by terrorist groups and transnational criminal networks, it has been deemed necessary to reinforce Europol so that if can provide its essential support to Member States as regards the prevention, analysis and investigation of transnational organised crime and terrorism. Therefore, as of 1 May 2017, its new legal framework shall enter into force, which unlike the previous one, will take the form of a Regulation41. However, reinforcing the Agency does not solely and exclusively depend on its new legal instrument, but also on a series of tools, particularly in the field of counter-terrorism, which is the issue at hand. In this vein, in January 2016, a European Counter Terrorism Centre was initiated within Europol, with the objective of turning it into the central axis for information as part of the fight against terrorism in the EU. Therefore, the ECTC includes: 1) Europol’s Focal Point ‘Travellers’ dealing with foreign terrorist fighters and related terrorist networks; 2) the Terrorist Financing Tracking Program (TFTP) between the EU and the US; 3) FIU.NET, the decentralised information network that supports the Financial Information Units; 4) Arms smuggling; 5) IRU – online terrorist propaganda (EU Internet Referral Unit - IRU)42. The vital importance of Europol’s Focal Point ‘Travellers’ should be underscored and it requires further assistance from Member States to introduce and transfer sensitive information relating to foreign fighters. Similarly, it is considered absolutely essential that all entries made by Member States to SIS II relating to ETFs (European terrorist fighters) be also transferred to the EIS by default43, since at the moment it 40 European Parliament resolution on renewing the EU Internal Security Strategy (2014/2918(RSP)). 41 Regulation (EU) 2016/794 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and replacing and repealing Council Decisions 2009/371/JHA, 2009/934/JHA, 2009/935/JHA, 2009/936/JHA and 2009/968/ JHA. 42 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: European Security Agenda. Strasbourg, 28.4.2015, COM(2015) 185 final, p. 15 et seq. 43 State of play on implementation of the statement of the Members of the European Council of 12 February 2015, the JHA Council Conclusions of 20 November 2015, and the Conclusions of the European Council of 18 December 2015. Brussels, 4 March 2016, Doc. 6785/16. According to the report “However, information sharing still does not reflect the threat: while there are now five
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