Executive Summary
Europe’s jihadist threat has entered a new phase defined by youth-driven online subcultures, accelerated by AI-enabled propaganda and shaped by viral geopolitical events, such as the Gaza conflict. This shift has strategic implications in the form of shorter attack-planning cycles, weaker intelligence visibility on youth ecosystems, and increasing ideological blending. Rather than recent immigrants or asylum seekers, the threat is primarily domestic and involves EU citizens or long-term residents, frequently second-generation. Meanwhile, with a digital reach that surpasses that of ISIS-core, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is becoming the most significant external actor regarding jihadism in Europe.
*Jihadism remains the deadliest category of violence in Europe. In 2024, there were 58 terrorist attacks in 14 EU Member States (34 completed, 5 failed, 19 foiled), of which 24 were jihadist compared to the 14 reported in 2023, with 5 killed and 18 injured. That year, there were 289 arrests related to jihadism, fewer than in 2023 (334), with France (58) and Spain (78) accounting for the majority in 2024. [source, source]
*Data figures and a complete list of cases by country are available at the end of the report.