// 1.2.2. EUROPEAN COUNTER TERRORISM CENTRE (ECTC)

Next to the ever-growing threat by cybercrime, Europe is currently facing a vicious, new form of international terrorism. The clear shift in strategy of carrying out special forces-style attacks in the international environment, with a particular focus on Europe, as well as the growing number of foreign terrorist fighters, demonstrates the new challenges facing the EU and its Member States.

To ensure an effective response to these challenges, in January 2016 Europol created the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC), an operations centre and hub of expertise that reflects the growing need for the EU to strengthen its response to terror.

The ECTC focuses on:

  • tackling foreign fighters;
  • sharing intelligence and expertise on terrorism financing (through the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme and the Financial Intelligence Unit);
  • online terrorist propaganda and extremism (through the EU Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU));
  • illegal arms trafficking;
  • international cooperation among counter terrorism authorities.

One prominent entity within the ECTC is the EU Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) which was established to browse the internet for social media accounts promoting Islamist extremist terrorist propaganda. The aim is to have such accounts shut down by the providers. The EU IRU was set to comprise the following core tasks:

  • To coordinate and share the identification tasks (flagging) of terrorist and violent extremist online content with relevant partners;
  • To carry out and support referrals quickly, efficiently and effectively, in close cooperation with industry;
  • To support competent authorities, by providing strategic and operational analysis;
  • To act as a European Centre of Excellence for the above tasks.

Times of crisis always influence the public debate on the relationship between freedom and security in that they make the pendulum swing towards security. This has triggered concerns that our fundamental rights will be watered down and our civil liberties be wiped away in an overreaction by governments taking away exactly those freedoms which we should in fact be defending, not only against terrorists but also against public entities.

However, the political decision to establish the ECTC at Europol also underlines the commitment to observance of fundamental rights including the right to data protection and privacy.