The Commission adopted in June a new Strategy ‘Towards a fully-functioning and resilient Schengen area’ with effective measures in the field of security, police and judicial cooperation for the functioning of the area of freedom security and justice, so that the EU remains strong against security threats, even without controls at internal borders. During the reporting period, agreement was found by co-legislators on the Funds which support many of the actions under the Security Union, in particular the reinforced Internal Security Fund (ISF) and the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) as part of the Integrated Border Management Fund (IBMF).

The success of the Security Union Strategy will rest on the quality of its implementation. This requires the full engagement of the national authorities and constant cooperation between all actors concerned with Europe’s internal and external security, including EU agencies. An inclusive, whole-of-society approach is being taken forward through enhanced cooperation among security stakeholders.

The scale of potential risks shows the urgent need to step up preparedness at national and EU level, by building up robust capabilities to prevent, detect, and mitigate such threats, and to handle offline and online crises where the protection and resilience of critical infrastructure, both physical and igital, plays a paramount important role.