On 14 December 2020, the Council adopted conclusions on internal security and European Police Partnership. They are designed to give further political guidance on improvements in the field of law enforcement cooperation, future reactions to security challenges, and use of the potential of evolving new technologies for law enforcement purposes. The key part of the conclusions defines milestones for the establishment of an effective European partnership for internal security, which are to be achieved up to 2025:

• Enhancing the principle of availability of information;
• Implementing technical solutions for a secure and confidential communication between law enforcement authorities;
• Making full use of the instruments for EU-wide alerts for criminal acts;
• Better connecting the information already available, in particular by implementing the interoperability of EU information systems;
• Reviewing and updating the Prüm framework;
• Modernising the acquis of cross-border police cooperation, e.g. as regards cross-border surveillance and hot pursuit;
• Enabling law enforcement authorities to use artificial intelligence in their daily work, subject to clear safeguards;
• Improving the capacity of law enforcement authorities of the Member States and Europol to work with third countries and public and private partners worldwide, so that access to the necessary information to counter serious crime is ensured.

The conclusions also set out the way forward in a number of areas such as law enforcement cooperation, keeping pace with technological progress, global cooperation, fighting transnational organised crime and preventing and combatting terrorism/violent extremism. A separate set of conclusions, included as Annex I, set out measures for stepping up cross-border law enforcement cooperation (--> separate news item under “Law Enforcement Cooperation”).