CHANCE (Civil Hub Against orgaNised Crime in Europe) addresses criminal networks operating within some of Europe’s wealthiest democracies. Founded by Libera in 2019, CHANCE exposes the uncomfortable truth that the EU itself has become a profitable hunting ground for organised crime groups.
Europol’s assessment reveals that 80% of criminal networks use legitimate European businesses as fronts and that 68% launder money through continental banking systems. When the EU launched its €672.5 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility following the pandemic, organised crime saw an opportunity in Brussels, Berlin and Bucharest.
CHANCE embeds civil society as a permanent watchdog where institutions fail. In Romania, for example, members track beneficial ownership registers to expose shell companies. In Belgium, they monitor confiscated asset auctions to prevent criminals from buying back seized property. In Malta, journalists document how construction permits facilitate money laundering.
The network’s manifesto identifies Europe-specific battlegrounds, such as preventing the Mafia from infiltrating EU recovery funds, prosecuting €1.5–10.3 billion of illegal waste trafficking as organised crime rather than environmental violations, creating Europe’s first Defender for Victims, establishing permanent seats for civil society in EU policymaking and stopping ecomafias from exploiting the green energy transition.
CHANCE works directly with the European Parliament, the Commission’s Recovery Task Force, Europol’s Asset Recovery Offices and the OSCE, bringing civil society into institutions that previously excluded them.
The PLACE connection matters: The Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia runs cocaine from Colombia through West African ports to Europe. When PLACE disrupts trafficking in Nigeria, it weakens the networks that CHANCE confronts in the Netherlands.
This is internationalism in civil society: not charity, but solidarity in a shared struggle.