Strong encryption is necessary to ensure cybersecurity, data protection and privacy. It helps citizens and businesses to defend themselves against the abuse of IT technologies, such as hacking, identity and personal data theft, fraud and the improper disclosure of confidential information. According to recent studies, around 70% of popular chat platforms have end-to-end encryption implemented, with 86% of the top 13 apps are encrypted by default. Moreover, consumer devices increasingly make use of full disk encryption by default. However, encryption is also used by criminals to conceal their harmful activities, which hampers the ability for competent law enforcement authorities to access the digital evidence they need to protect EU citizens online and offline. According to the 2025 Europol's Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment, criminals are increasingly using end-to-end encrypted communication apps for their operations. As a result, encryption increasingly prevents law enforcement authorities from accessing critical criminal evidence. How does the Commission address encryption in criminal investigations? Since 2018, the Commission took several practical steps to support law enforcement authorities in overcoming challenges posed by encryption in the context of criminal investigations. In line with Council resolution from December 2020 “Security through encryption and security despite encryption”, these measures respect the safeguarding of strong encryption, required for the functioning of the Digital Single Market and do not in any way prohibit, limit or weaken encryption. The main measures consisted in: equipping Europol's (EC3s) with an efficient technical capability to support EU law enforcement accessing criminal encrypted datasets;developing and providing trainings to LEAs and the judiciary especially on encryption; all levels, developed jointly by ECTEG and CEPOL and delivered by CEPOL;establishing a forward-looking observatory to monitor legal and technical developments in the context of the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security. The EU Innovation Hub is produces public reports on encryption; As announced in ProtectEU: a European Internal Security Strategy in June 2025 the Commission proposed a Roadmap for effective and lawful access to data for law enforcement that includes several initiatives to address the challenges of encryption in criminal investigations, in line with the recommendations of the High-Level Group on access to data for effective law enforcement. In particular, the Commission will prepare a Technology Roadmap on encryption, to identify and assess technological solutions that would enable law enforcement authorities to access encrypted data in a lawful manner, safeguarding cybersecurity and fundamental rights. The expert group tasked to support the Commission in this endeavour will include experts in law enforcement, cybersecurity, encryption, communication technologies, standardisation and fundamental rights to deliver its conclusions by 2026. Moreover, the Commission will support the research and development of new decryption capacities to ensure that Europol is well equipped after 2030 to support Member States, considering new technological developments such as quantum computing and the most advanced research in the field.
