Security Union: EU-U.S. cooperation on tackling terrorist financing continues to produce results

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Cooperation between the EU and the U.S. on tracking terrorist financing has continued to yield positive results with over 70,000 leads generated between 2016 and 2018 – some of which were instrumental in bringing forward investigations relating to terrorist attacks on EU soil, including those in Stockholm, Barcelona and Turku. According to the Joint Report published today, the Commission is satisfied with EU-U.S. cooperation under the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) and the essential safeguards and controls, such as data protection, continue to be properly implemented. The TFTP is a key instrument to provide timely, accurate and reliable information to identify and track terrorists and their support networks worldwide. EU Member States and Europol have increasingly used the mechanism and the number of leads generated by TFTP soared between 2016 and 2018 to 70,991 as compared to 8,998 in the previous reporting period. In the report published today, the Commission suggests that Member States provide regular feedback on the leads received from the U.S. and encourages Europol’s continued efforts in providing support to Member States. The next Joint Review of the Agreement is expected in 2021. The full Report and Staff Working Document are available online.

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