Preventing and fighting illicit trafficking of cultural goods

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Increased evidence collection and intelligence gathering, effective cross-border and cross-domain cooperation and uptake by the Law Enforcement Authorities (LEA) and experts of the consolidated tools and platforms within their operational systems and methodologies in accordance with the different user’s requirements. Capacity building and consolidated training ecosystem, developed with concrete, validated, actionable, interactive training materials tailored to the specific needs of different user groups across EU Member States and beyond. European Union law enforcement, judiciary and other competent authorities and practitioners gain a better understanding and enhanced capabilities in addressing crimes related to cultural heritage thanks to the consolidations of existing solutions, standardized and tailored trainings and workshops and practical learning materials. Actionable solutions to the threat to cultural heritage trafficking by illicit excavations crime that do not necessarily amount to organised crime but are still illegal activities that considerably endanger Europe’s cultural heritage, as well as cultural heritage in third countries. A robust and long-term sustainable support framework and plan which will ensure and make operational a long-term cooperation in the prevention and fight of illicit trafficking of cultural goods. Scope: Trafficking in cultural goods is a serious crime that poses significant threats to cultural heritage, particularly in conflict and crisis areas. This illicit trade involves the illegal import, export, and transfer of ownership of valuable cultural items, including theft from institutions and private collections, looting of archaeological sites, assets laundering and forgery of cultural goods. At the EU level, combatting cultural goods’ trafficking is supported by the EU Security Union Strategy 2020-2025 [1] , the EU Strategy to Tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025 [2] , the EU action plan against trafficking in cultural goods [3] and the related Council Conclusions [4] , [5] , [6] , the EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA) [7] . Cultural goods’ trafficking is a highly specialised criminal market. The criminals range from specialised criminal networks to corrupt dealers or expert dark web traders. Criminal networks and actors active in the area of cultural goods trafficking are characterised by a high degree of expertise and specialised knowledge [8] . To overtake the challenges there is the necessity to use advan…