International Day of Police Cooperation 2025: discover how HaDEA-managed projects are contributing to law enforcement capabilities

On 7 September, the International Day of Police Cooperation is celebrated worldwide to highlight the importance of collaboration between law enforcement authorities in ensuring public safety and protection.

At HaDEA, we mark this occasion by showcasing projects funded under the Digital Europe Programme that contribute to building a safer online environment, including initiatives supporting Safer Internet Centres (SICs) across Europe. These projects align with the European Union’s new strategy to strengthen preparedness across sectors, ensuring that both public authorities and citizens are better equipped to respond to emerging real word and digital challenges.

The national SICs cooperate with the national police and law enforcement authorities in their work to raise awareness of online safety and of potential risks that children and young people may encounter online, as well as in their fight against online child sexual abuse.

Discover some of the projects and their contributions below:

• The German Safer Internet Centre’s hotline partners – namely eco, die Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter e.V. (FSM) and jugendschutz.net - maintain close cooperation with the national law enforcement authorities. The collaboration is formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which is also a member of SIC Germany’s Advisory Board. Partners meet regularly to discuss trends, identify improvements, and ensure best practices for fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online effectively. The SIC’s hotline partners act as national alert platforms for receiving and managing reports on CSAM, child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), racism, and xenophobia including illegal hate speech, and contribute to the swift removal of such content following agreed notice-and-takedown (NTD) procedures.
• The Irish Safer Internet Centre’s hotline (Hotline.ie), overseen by the Department of Justice, is a recognised national body for notice and takedown of illegal online material. Hotline.ie has a long-standing collaborative partnership with An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s National Police and Security Service) and works closely with online service providers to ensure illegal material is swiftly removed. The SIC’s hotline also explores ways to expand its response to CSEM content and implemented a pilot initiative in 2024 to test extending notice-and-takedown procedures to such material.
• The Austrian Safer Internet Centre(SIC) promotes safe and responsible use of the internet and mobile technologies among children and young people. It aims to empower children, parents, and teachers to use digital media safely and effectively. Saferinternet.at cooperates closely with public authorities, NGOs, and industry partners. The Austrian hotline, Stopline, was founded in 1998 by the Austrian ISPA as a self-regulatory instrument for reporting illegal content. Stopline provides an online form and email address for users to report illegal online content, focusing primarily on child pornography and national socialism. The hotline assists users and ISPs in reacting to illegal content and supports law enforcement authorities to act quickly and efficiently.
• The Romanian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) advocates for internet safety among children, parents, teachers, and specialists through awareness campaigns, training, and educational activities. It also contributes to shaping public policy and improving legislation. A major goal is to combat illegal or harmful content and internet-related crimes, such as CSAM and grooming, while promoting responsible use of the internet and new communication technologies. The reporting hotline, esc_ABUZ, is the country’s only civilian point of contact for anonymous reporting of child sexual abuse images. It is part of Save the Children’s Ora de Net project, a Safer Internet Centre integrating counseling and awareness initiatives. 

Background 

The UN resolution establishing the International Day of Police Cooperation emphasises the need to strengthen international cooperation at global, regional, and subregional levels in areas such as preventing transnational crime and countering terrorism.

The Digital Europe Programme aims to build the EU’s strategic digital capacities and facilitate the deployment of digital technologies. With an overall budget of €7.5 billion, of which €0.8 billion is managed by HADEA, the programme supports investments in high performance computing, cloud, data, and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and accelerating best use of technologies.