Beschreibung:
In response to The Hague Programme, as concluded by the European Council in November 2004, in particular its emphasis on the need for a future oriented assessment of organised crime (OC) to support law enforcement efforts in the European Union (EU), it was decided to replace the Organised Crime Report (OCR) with the Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA). The first OCTA was endorsed by the Council during their meeting on 1-2 June 2006. The OCTA covers the EU. However, it can not be neglected that Europe, due to its geography and its cultural, social and historical differences, is not a homogeneous structure and so may also require a regional priority setting. Therefore, although the European dimension is the prime focus, the OCTA also accounts for regional divergences. In order to enhance the understanding of events within the EU, consideration of the international arena is at times necessary. To allow comparisons in this area, creating a ranking of OC groups and phenomena is a major challenge, not only for methodological reasons. Nevertheless, the OCTA uses indicators in different areas which, if evaluated together, will identify the threat level from a European perspective. The OCTA does not reflect on all existing OC groups or crime types, but the application of specific criteria allows for a pre-selection of the most relevant criminal phenomena. To support decision-makers in the best possible way, the OCTA provides a well-targeted qualitative assessment of the threat from OC. The OCTA is based on a multi-source approach, including law enforcement and non-law enforcement contributions. These include various European agencies as well as the private sector. A specific emphasis is put on elaborating the benefits of an intensified public-private partnership. The OCTA helps to close the gap between strategic findings and operational activities. The OCTA helps to identify the highest priorities, which will then be effectively tackled with the appropriate law enforcement instruments. The OCTA suggests strategic priorities, but it needs to be realised that the OCTA itself is not detailed enough to pinpoint specific criminal investigations. The OCTA is always being enhanced. Methodological and other issues are continuously being addressed in close co-operation with the Member States to allow for the further enhancement of the OCTA. The methodology and procedures for its completion have been amended, and this has had a positive result in terms of quality of the contributions submitted to the report and the way in which the contributions are processed and analysed. Overall, the changes which have been introduced have all contributed to enhancing the quality of the OCTA. The OCTA does not cover terrorism or terrorist networks. These issues are touched upon when they are relevant for the study of OC, however due to the particularities involved in the field of terrorism, the area is being covered as a separate issue.