EUEU launches a series of counterterrorism initiatives
Using Europol, which has new authority to collect information on people who have never been convicted of a criminal offense, the EU is planning to create a more centralized intelligence sharing system which will allow security services to monitor and track suspects throughout the union. EU officials are also looking to improve information sharing with Arab countries.
Foreign ministers from the European Union’s (EU) twenty-eight member countries met in Brussels yesterday to discuss anti-terror initiatives following the terror attacks in Paris and the breakup of a jihadist cell in Belgium. The EU is expected to enter a new era of travel surveillance and anti-terror initiatives.
The British government has called for support of its plan to create new databases to monitor all air travel in and out and within Europe. British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said that ministers would review ways to block European Parliament opposition to the central databases of airline passengers records. “We will all be determined to do what is necessary to keep Europe safe from the terrorist threat. We will be talking about the challenge of extreme Islamism today and how we deal with it, with our counter-terrorist response,” he said. “We will be looking at some of the specific measures that can help to keep us safe, like passenger name records, within Europe. So that is important.”
The Telegraph reports that using Europol, which has new authority to collect information on people who have never been convicted of a criminal offense, the EU is planning to create a more centralized intelligence sharing system which will allow security services to monitor and track suspects throughout the union.
EU officials are also looking to improve information sharing with Arab countries. Hammond notes that the United States will join officials from EU and Arab countries later this week in London to discuss progress made in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). Cooperation with the Arab world is vital to combating Islamic extremism, EU officials repeated during the meeting. “The Muslim countries of the world are the ones that have suffered the greatest burden of terrorism. They will continue to be in the front line and we have to work closely with them to protect both those countries and the EU countries,” Hammond said.
The EU’s foreign minister Federica Mogherini welcomed Nabil el-Arabi, the secretary general of the Arab League, to yesterday’s talks. She stressed that the EU must first strengthen information sharing relationships with Muslim countries, then internally with EU member countries. “We need to share information more, we need to cooperate more. We will discuss with the secretary general how to increase the level of cooperation with our partners. We need an alliance, a dialogue.”
Mogherini also noted that EU governments would appeal an European court ruling that orders the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas be removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organizations. Pending the appeal, Hamas will remain on the list and its assets will remain frozen before a final judgment by the European Court of Justice.
“The EU is determined to stem the financing of terrorism,” she said.
