Jan Van Der Helm

The EU policy cycle EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) is a security initiative driven by EU Member States to identify, prioritise and address threats posed by organised and serious international crime. EMPACT brings together a broad range of multidisciplinary professionals from Member States and third countries to take concrete actions against criminal networks. Participants include mainly law enforcement authorities, but also the judiciary, EU agencies, and private partners. For the 2026-2029 cycle online child sexual exploitation is one of the prioritized key areas.

In this presentation we will give some background on EMPACT, but mainly we will explain the 18 operational actions that are conducted under the EMPACT framework and how new participants can join. Examples of the Operational Actions are:
- Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in / to tackle the criminal online sphere
- Targeting financial flows related to CSA
- Identification of LDCA sellers, buyers and victims
- Victim Identification Taskforce(s) - VIDTFs
- Peer to peer investigation with operational training
- High Value Target (HVT)
- Global Covert Internet Investigations
- Police2Peer warning files on P2P networks
- Development of a Core Data Set with the Universal Classification Schema for Annotation and Categorization Purposes
- Joint fight against child sexual abuse in the Western Balkans region