Spain has recorded the highest number of arrests for terrorism offences linked to Islamist extremism in the EU, figures show.
Data released by Europol, the bloc’s law enforcement agency, shows that in 2025, 100 people were arrested in the country on Islamist-related terrorism charges.
Across the EU, there were 347 arrests on suspicion of Islamist terrorism out of a total of 486 held for terror offences, with 43 right-wing terrorists making up the next-largest group.
The number of arrests over Islamist terrorism was up from 289 last year and just above the level in 2023, when 334 suspected extremists were arrested.
The EU reported 45 terrorist attacks in 2025, with 24 carried out by Islamist extremists, 12 by left-wing and anarchist extremists, and five by right-wing terrorists.
Of these, 22 were completed, 20 were foiled, and three failed. The 22 completed attacks resulted in six deaths overall.
Among those detained by Spain's Guardia Civil were three Moroccan nationals who investigators alleged formed a group “aligned with the tenets of the global jihadist movement”.
They searched online for material produced by Al Qaeda and ISIS, despite the two groups being rivals, as well as information about weapons, explosives, and suicide attacks. The suspects conducted physical training and possessed a large machete, said police.
France (64), the Netherlands and Austria (40), Belgium (30), and Italy (26) were the other EU countries with the greatest number of Islamist extremists arrested, according to Europol.
Most arrests were on suspicion of terrorist propaganda (91), membership (73), and preparation for a terrorist attack (53), followed by participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation (40).
Fatal terrorist attacks in the EU included a stabbing in which a Syrian asylum seeker killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five other people in the Austrian town of Villach.
Police said that he pledged allegiance to ISIS before carrying out the attack.
Europol’s report also highlights that the conflict in the Middle East has led to “polarisation in the EU, with anti-Semitism being a unifying narrative among diverse terrorist and violent extremist actors”.
“In 2025, this resulted in cases of radicalised individuals targeting Jewish interests, and the arrests of individuals based in the EU intending to join one of Iran’s proxy groups,” said Europol.
