During recent years, Europol has strengthened its operational capabilities by redesigning its response to terrorism and serious and organised crime. In line with Europol’s strategy to be the EU criminal information hub, and especially to provide effective and real-time information exchange, the new generation 24/7 Operational Centre at Europol was launched in 2016.
Europol duty officers work on a 24/7 basis to ensure an uninterrupted operational service for its partners, and to maximise the intake and processing of criminal information and intelligence. The frontline officers monitor not only operational information exchange but also identify incidents that require Europol’s immediate attention to support its partner countries. Fifteen Europol officers currently work in shifts to monitor operational and open source information and offer real-time support to stakeholders. This is a completely different landscape and makes Europol the only EU law enforcement agency with this capability.
Moreover, a newly-upgraded operational environment has been established for joint action days as well as other cross-border operations. The upgraded facilities include a secure environment for international operations with the state-of-the art video-conferencing and interactive audio-visual solutions, as well as tailor-made multipurpose workstations, enabling a new level of cooperation between law enforcement officers
The series of joint action days (JAD s) connecting operations of the EMPACT priorities continued in 2016 resulting in three joint actions, codenamed Ciconia Alba:
