|
Europe Adopts New Counter-terror Strategy
 |
|
"We
face a threat from people who come to Europe from the outside and
we face a threat from people who live in Europe," De Vries
said.
|
BRUSSELS,
December 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – European
justice and interior ministers adopted on Thursday, December 1, a new
counter-terror strategy.
"The
strategy sets out our objectives to prevent new recruits to terrorism;
better protect potential targets; pursue and investigate members of
existing networks and improve our capability to respond to and manage
the consequences of terrorist attacks," the ministers said in a
statement, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
25-member bloc should step up security at ports of entry to make it
"harder for known or suspected terrorists to enter or operate
within the EU", the paper said.
It
further calls for better police cooperation and more action to disrupt
terrorist networks by cutting off their funding and access to
bomb-making materials.
"We
cannot reduce the risk of terrorist attacks to zero. We have to be
able to deal with attacks when they occur," the strategy paper
said.
The
plan, drafted by current EU president Britain, will now go to leaders
of the 25 member states, who will endorse it at a December 15-16
summit in Brussels.
The
fight against terrorism is primarily the responsibility of the member
states, but the EU is seeking to help national efforts, including
through better intelligence sharing.
Data
Monitoring
The
ministers stressed that terrorists must be "deprived as far as
possible of the opportunities offered by the Internet to communicate
and spread technical expertise related to terrorism".
The
ministers agreed on the need to retain telecommunications data, which
greatly helped investigators track down suspects in the Madrid
bombings in March 2004, which killed 191 people.
But
they did not agree on how long the information should be kept or who
should pay for the costs such an operation might incur.
"There's
a long range of issues which continue to generate discussion" on
the telecommunications data alone, a senior British official said on
condition of anonymity.
"They
vary from retention periods, through the handling of costs, through
access and how to regulate access to the information, to the question
of how you do data retention and data security ... just to take a
handful."
The
measures would oblige businesses to keep details about callers, such
as who they spoke to, where and when, and would apply to land
telephone lines and mobile phones, text messages, and Internet
protocols.
London
also wants information about unanswered communications kept -- a
controversial demand as it would force the industry into extra
spending.
Web
Sites
Issues
such as increasing police access to telephone and Internet data and
allowing them to shut down extremist Web sites remain unresolved, amid
concerns over privacy rights.
The
ministers fall short of French demands that member states be given the
judicial tools to close down a suspect Web site.
"The
25 don't all have the same perception about what constitutes a
terrorist threat," one diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.
Britain
hopes to fast-track a European-wide package of anti-terror measures
through the European Parliament, the EU's executive commission and the
council of member states before the end of the year.
However,
the British diplomat remains skeptical as to the success of such an
effort.
"The
range of views and the difficulty of the issues under examination mean
that although I'm positive and hopeful, it's not at all certain that
we will be able to reach agreement at the council," he said.
Dual
Threat
The
strategy suggest that security services must better identify the
recruitment methods of "Islamist militants" and spot young
people at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
"We
face a dual threat. We face a threat from people who come to Europe
from the outside and we face a threat from people who live in Europe.
Some of them are first generation migrants, some of them have been
born here," EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gijs De Vries told
Reuters.
He
stressed there were no easy solutions.
"No
one is under any illusions. There are no automatic links for example
between poverty and terrorism," he said.
"There
are many people inside Europe and elsewhere living in conditions that
are difficult and they do not strike into terrorism. Some do. So there
is no automatic link."
|
