General Note No. 2: The European Roadmap for LEA Data

Briefing Note –

On 24 June, the European Commission presented a Roadmap outlining how to ensure that law enforcement authorities in the EU have effective and lawful access to data.

Why this matters: Terrorism, organised crime, online fraud, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse, sexual extortion, ransomware, and other offences increasingly leave digital traces. With around 85% of criminal investigations now relying on electronic evidence, authorities need better tools and a modernised legal framework to access data lawfully while fully upholding fundamental rights.

To support stakeholders, UNIBA has prepared a concise briefing note on the Roadmap. It summarises the main actions and timelines, explaining how this plan functions as an operational blueprint – covering investment, standards, training, and governance – to make data access faster, more coordinated, and rights-compliant across the EU.

From Fragmentation to Coordination: The European Roadmap on Law Enforcement Data Access

by Claudia Calabrese and Teresa Catalano (UNIBA)

On 24 June 2025, the European Commission published the Roadmap on Legal and Effective Access to Data for Law Enforcement Authorities (COM (2025) 349 final), with the objective of supporting investigative authorities across the European Union in addressing a fragmented operational landscape shaped by regulatory constraints, technical barriers, and limited system interoperability. This document outlines a series of concrete measures designed to overcome these challenges and to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies to access and analyse digital evidence, while upholding fundamental rights.

The Roadmap constitutes a strategic reference for the PRESERVE project, as it explicitly recognises the prevailing obstacles in the investigative activity of the Police and sets out a few priority actions. These include targeted investments in the development of advanced digital forensic tools, the reinforcement of national analytical capacities, the enhancement of data exchange mechanisms, the harmonisation of legal frameworks governing data retention and the improvement of system interoperability across Member States.

Among the primary challenges identified, the Roadmap underscores the pressing need to guarantee timely, lawful, and effective access to digital evidence.

The presentation of the European Commission’s strategic priorities enables PRESERVE project to align its objectives and methodologies with evolving regulatory and technological developments, assuring that the solutions it proposes are consistent with the Union’s future needs. Working from the strategic orientations defined in the Roadmap, PRESERVE can maximise the systemic impact of its activities, support their long-term sustainability, and enhance the prospects for their operational adoption by law enforcement agencies across the EU, in particular as a result of the widespread use of Artificial Intelligence.