Europol announces changes to terrorism report methodology

Europol has announced that it will change the methodology used to produce the annual report on the state of terrorism threat in the European Union.

In the most recent report from 2023, Europol labeled the Catalan and Basque independence movements as the “most active and violent” in Spain, although they were later downgraded and instead included in the “extremism” section of the report.

Catherine De Bolle, the director of the EU law enforcement agency, announced on Tuesday, that the report will now go through new filters before being published.

Currently, the report consists of data provided by the member states, and part of the new process will be to “verify” that data.

Specifically, there will be three changes in the methodology, according to De Bolle.

The first change, of which member states have been informed, will be that the data provided should reflect “the state of terrorism in the EU” rather than “an assessment of the threats.”

Secondly, member states will now receive a draft version of the document to “verify and correct the content” that they believe is no longer accurate.

The final change is a revision process of this draft in the hands of a group of experts.

News of the methodology changes comes a week after the Catalan Republican MEP, Diana Riba, met with De Bolle at the Europol headquarters in The Hague to discuss the modifications.