CEPOL - European Police College

08/05/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/05/2021 09:39

CEPOL issues Training Needs Analysis on Counterterrorism

The EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) has issued its Operational Training Needs Analysis (OTNA) on Counterterrorism (CT). This report provides law enforcement academies and training institutions throughout the EU a comprehensive picture on the operational level training priorities of law enforcement officials.

In total, respondents from 22 Member States and 6 EU structures filled out the survey, indicating that 42 084 participants would need training in the area of Counterterrorism in 2022. According to the results, the most relevant training topics are Foreign terrorist fighters; Radicalisation; Terrorism/Firearms trafficking and Financing terrorism. The report also underlines that fundamental rights should be given priority, at least in content, when designing the training portfolio on Counterterrorism.

With the aim of better understanding the training needs, various horizontal aspects were also presented to the respondents, and the overall assessment demonstrated that training should put emphasis on Cross-border exchange of information; Information exchange and Cooperation with non-EU countries.

The outcomes of the research will be used to define CEPOL's training portfolio in CT for 2022 with the development of specific training products for the European Union. The full report is accessible here.

CEPOL has established the Knowledge Centre on Counterterrorism (CKC CT) last year to enhance the Agency's activities in the field. This CKC is mandated to design the multiannual EU-level training portfolio and to ensure the quality of activities in this specific domain.

CEPOL has already published OTNAs on two other strategic areas, one on Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and one on Law Enforcement Cooperation, Information Exchange and Interoperability.

What is behind the OTNA approach?

The CEPOL Regulation mandates the Agency to incorporate training needs assessments and analysis in its planning. CEPOL completed the EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU-STNA) in 2018, identifying strategic level training priorities for law enforcement officials across Europe for the period 2018-2021. In order to analyse the particular training needs in more details, CEPOL is conducting the OTNAs.

The OTNA methodology is a structured training needs analysis procedure, which takes into consideration the deliverables of the EU-STNA process. CEPOL designs its multiannual training portfolio building on the outcomes of the OTNAs, which provide a detailed understanding of the number and profile of officials to be trained, as well as on the proficiency and urgency level of training to be delivered.