  We show the results obtained in the FP7 European program EXTraS and in the
ESA R&D ATHENA activity AREMBES aimed at a deeper understanding of the
XMM-Newton background to better design the ATHENA mission. Thanks to an
analysis of the full EPIC archive coupled to the information obtained by the
Radiation Monitor we show the cosmic ray origin of the unfocused particle
background and its anti-correlation with the solar activity. We show the first
results of the effort to obtain informations about the particle component of
the soft proton focused background.
