Eastern Partner countries strengthen EU cooperation against serious and organised crime through EMPACT

In February 2026, officers from Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine took part in the kick-off meetings of the 13 Operational Actions Plans of the new cycle of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT).

The meetings took part at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands,as part of efforts to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and Eastern Neighbourhood countries against serious and organised crime.

EMPACT is a permanent EU instrument for structured multidisciplinary cooperation to fight serious and organised international crime. Every four years, Europol publishes the European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA), which is used to set the EU crime priorities that will be fought through Operational Action Plans (OAPs).

Each OAP contains a number of specific Operational Actions (OAs). In late 2025, the Council of the EU approved the 13 OAPs of the new cycle 2026-29, and a series of 13 meetings took place at Europol to officially kick off each OAP.

While EMPACT is driven by the Member States, a wide range of stakeholders can be invited to participate including third countries. As part of the ‘Fighting against Organised Crime in the Eastern Partnership region (phase II)‘ (EaP) project, funded by the European Union, Europol seeks to enhance the participation of Eastern Neighbourhood countries in EMPACT. The project supported the participation of 28 officers from Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Moldova and Ukraine will participate in all OAPs, as they did in the previous cycle, underlining the strong interest from both countries and EU Member States to further strengthen their cooperation. Moreover, both Moldova and Ukraine will have greater responsibilities in the new cycle as they will lead and co-lead various OAs. For its first participation in EMPACT, Armenia will be involved in 8 OAPs.

The kick-off meetings launched the new EMPACT operational cycle and focused on thoroughly presenting the operational actions, confirming the participation, refining the timelines for the first half 2026 and creating networks between law enforcement authorities. Early participation allowed partner countries to contribute to discussions from the outset and align their national priorities with EU-level operational work.

Find out more

More information on EMPACT.

More information on the ‘Fighting against Organised Crime in the Eastern Partnership region (phase II)‘ project