ATLAS Network
| Motto | All together to protect you |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1996 |
Region served | Europe |
The ATLAS Network is an informal association consisting of the special police units of the 28 states of the European Union.[1][2] The goal of ATLAS is to improve cooperation among the police units and to enhance skills by training with the other units. The name ATLAS is a reference to the Titan Atlas from the Ancient Greek mythology.
History
In 1996 the Council of the European Union decided to establish a network which would increase skills, knowledge and expertise about counter-terrorism among the law enforcement agencies of the member states of the European Union. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the ATLAS Network was formed in order to prevent similar attacks in Europe.[2]
Sharing of expertise
On a regular basis meetings and joint exercises are conducted among the units.
Five project teams were created which consisted of special police units of four member states which specialized in certain areas.[3] There is also so called "Sniper Forum", a group within ATLAS tasked with sniper training. [4]
- The Austrian EKO Cobra on raids in buildings
- The British SCO19 on raids in subways
- The French GIGN on airplane raids
- The French RAID on raids of trains and busses
- The German GSG 9 for maritime actions
- The Czech URNA for sniper training
Members
- ARAS (Lithuania)
- Acvila (Romania)
- BOA (Poland)
- Politiets Aktionsstyrke (Denmark)
- DSI (Netherlands)
- DSU (Belgium)
- EAO (Cyprus)
- EKAM (Greece)
- EKO Cobra (Austria)
- ERU (Ireland)[5]
- GIGN (France)
- GIS (Italy)
- GEO (Spain)
- GOE (Portugal)
- GSG 9 der Bundespolizei (Germany)
- Karhu (Finland)
- K-Commando (Estonia)
- Lynx (Slovakia)
- NI (Sweden)
- NOCS (Italy)
- OMEGA (Latvia)
- RAID (France)
- Red Panther (Slovenia)
- SCO19 (United Kingdom)
- SEK of the State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
- Special Assignments Group (SAG) (Malta)
- SIAS [6] (Romania)
- SOBT (Bulgaria)
- TEK (Hungary)
- UEI (Spain)
- URNA (Czech Republic)
- USP (Luxembourg)
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.eu2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/PFUE-10_2008/PFUE-07.10.2008/seminaire_du_reseau_atlas_des_forces_d_intervention_europeennes.html
- 1 2 Block, Ludo (15 March 2007). [http://www.jamestown.org/programs/tm/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1044 "Europe's Emerging Counter-Terrorism Elite: The ATLAS Network"]. The Jamestown Foundation.
- ↑ http://www.bundespolizei.de/DE/06Die-Bundespolizei/BPOL_Kompakt/2012/kompakt_1-12_file.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
- ↑ http://www.msline.cz/index.php?page=cdis-review&cislo=cdis-review-1-2013&clanek=s-reditelem-elitniho-utvaru-policie-cr-po-deseti-letech
- ↑ Ferry, Declan (17 April 2013). "Garda crack squad that will protect Obama | Elite units on dry run for G8 summit". Irish Mirror Newspaper. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ↑ http://www.politiaromana.ro/SIIAS/index.htm