In 2010, the EU Council established a multi-annual policy cycle in order to 1) define priorities in the EU-wide “fight against serious international and organized crime,” on this basis 2) develop and 3) implement appropriate interventions to tackle the prioritized crime phenomena and 4) evaluate the results achieved in order to identify a new set of priorities for the following cycle. After a two-year trial cycle, the first policy-cycle started in 2013 and is due to last until 2017 (Europol, 2013: 9).
