Roundup: EU ministers map out measures on fighting terrorism

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Roundup: EU ministers map out measures on fighting terrorism

The justice and interior ministers of the European Union (EU) worked out Friday a series of counter-terrorism measures to prevent the re-occurrence of attacks like the March 11 Madrid bombings.

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The justice and interior ministers of the European Union (EU) worked out Friday a series of counter-terrorism measures to prevent the re-occurrence of attacks like the March 11 Madrid bombings.

The ministers from the 25 EU members and would-be members, who met here for an "extraordinary" conference on terrorism, proposed for "immediate implementation" of the solidarity clause as envisaged by Article 42 of the draft Constitution for Europe.

Article 42 says the EU and its members should "act jointly in aspirit of solidarity if a Member State is victim of terrorist attack" and they should assist it at its request.

European Commissioner for justice and home affairs Antonio Vitorino hailed the proposal, noting it sends a "strong political message" for all EU members would be "equally targeted" if one member is attacked by terrorists.

The meeting, a quick response to the deadly Madrid bombings which claimed 202 lives and wounded 1,500 more, also demanded tighter EU borders control.

Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell, who chaired Friday's meeting for his country is holding the EU Presidency, said the ministers have agreed to set up a European Borders Agency by May this year, which is expected to be made operational by January 1, 2005.

The ministers also proposed introducing biometric identifiers in visas and residence permits for third country nationals by Junethis year, a practice the United States has put into operation.

However, the ministers didn't agree to Austrian Interior Minister Ernst Strasser's proposal of setting up a "European Intelligence Agency." In the meantime, they believe it more vital to make "optimum and effective" use of current EU bodies like Europol, Eurojust and EU Police Chiefs' Task Force.

The meeting called for enhancement of the role of Europol in exchange of anti-terrorism intelligence, requesting that law enforcement departments of all EU members provide Europol with allrelevant intelligence on terrorism "as soon as it is available".

McDowell said Europol would expand the intelligence exchange from current doing it within six countries to all EU-25 in terms of terrorism intelligence.

If the proposal is finally approved, Europol will become a defacto "European CIA" in the field of counter-terrorism intelligence.

The widely-reported proposal of setting up an EU counter-terrorism coordinator was accepted by the ministers, but the coordinator will work "within the (EU) Council Secretariat" instead of within the European Commission.

The ministers also proposed to strengthen security of all transport systems and forge a directive demanding transport services provide passenger data for EU counter-terrorism institutions.

Other measures proposed by the meeting include: revising the EUaction plan on fighting terrorism; cutting off funding of terrorism; increasing cooperation with the United Nations and the United States in the combat against terrorism.

McDowell said at a press conference after the meeting that the meeting also called for mapping out a directive on compensation tocrime victims by May 1 this year.

All the above proposals constitute the major part of a draft Declaration on Combating Terrorism, which is expected to be adopted at the EU summit next week, and they still have to go through the review of EU foreign ministers and leaders next week.

Analysts believe the EU has finally made a solid step towards the enhancement of the fight against terrorism in the wake of the March 11 tragedy.

Just as Vitorino put it: most of the proposals have set special deadlines, demonstrating the firm political commitment of the EU to fighting terrorism.

Source:Xinhua

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