TE-SAT 2026: fewer attacks in the EU, more arrests, younger suspects

Europol published the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) 2026 on 13 July 2026. Covering 2025, it records 45 terrorist attacks in ten Member States, down from 58 in 2024: 22 completed, 3 failed and 20 foiled. France (14), Italy (11) and Austria (7) reported the most.

Jihadist terrorism remained the most lethal, with 24 attacks, 9 of them completed, causing 5 deaths and 81 injuries. Left-wing and anarchist groups were behind 12 attacks, almost all in Italy; right-wing terrorism accounted for 5, one completed and four foiled. Arrests rose to 486 across 21 Member States (449 in 2024); 347 of them, 71%, related to jihadism, and more than 70% of those concerned propaganda and support activities. Among arrestees whose age is known, 130 were 18 or younger; the youngest was 12.

The report's central theme is online radicalisation: digital platforms, encrypted messaging, gaming environments and generative AI let lone actors and self-initiated cells act with little organisational support, and some online communities treat violence itself as a source of identity, which makes the path to action harder to detect.

Why it matters When 70% of jihadism arrests concern propaganda and support, the evidence lives online, and so does the early warning. The same OSINT discipline that maps a criminal forum maps an extremist channel: who posts, who amplifies, where the money and the recruits come from.