Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-05-Speech-3-016"
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"en.20070905.2.3-016"2
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"Mr President, the Commission continues to be fully committed to the implementation of the EU counter-terrorism strategy, the action plan, as the Council just said, endorsed in 2005. Our political goal remains to strike the right balance between the fundamental right to security of citizens, which is, first of all, the right to life, and the other fundamental rights of individuals, including privacy and procedural rights. All sources indicate that the threat of new terrorist attacks continues to be high. Our Member States’ authorities have been able to prevent a number of attacks, for which we must be very grateful. I am talking about Spain, Italy, Belgium, the UK and Germany. Yesterday the Danish authorities dismantled a group of young terrorists, also of Danish nationality, ready to mount a bombing attack. Minister Espersen said it was the most serious terrorist case in Denmark.
This brings me to the internet and the way this tool, which has brought amazing advantages to our world, is being misused by terrorists. We all know that terrorists enjoy the benefits of the internet just as much as ordinary citizens, for instance to plan their attacks or to disseminate messages of concrete incitement to commit terrorist attacks.
The benefits of e-learning have also not escaped the attention of terrorists. You can find on internet websites, for example, detailed information and instructions of all kinds of terrorist tactics, including the production of explosives. The proposal I mentioned just now will aim at ensuring that these forms of negative and criminal behaviour will be made punishable across the EU.
Another element of this package of measures relates to the idea of having a European policy on PNR. Reflection on details of this proposal is still ongoing, but the Commission’s main intention is to ensure that each Member State collects PNR records, processes them and, where appropriate, exchanges them with others. Up until now, PNR has been associated mostly with negotiation aimed at ensuring that European citizen data are processed correctly by our partners and allies, in particular the United States.
I think the time has come to partially change focus and devote resources to the security of the European Union. The Union is at least as much a potential target of a terrorist attack as the United States and the use and analysis of PNR is an important law enforcement tool to protect our citizens, who deserve the same protection as the citizens of the United States.
The final element of the package consists of the second report on the implementation of the Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism. The new report will also include information on the situation in the new Member States, which was not available in 2004 – and you can understand why.
This brings me to the more general question raised concerning an overall comprehensive evaluation of all counter-terrorist measures adopted until now. Of course, I am in favour of the principle of evaluating the effectiveness of policies. As regards justice, freedom and security policies in particular you might be aware that work is ongoing on the development of global evaluation mechanisms. I am ready to cooperate, as I have been doing in the past with Parliament, and in particular with the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, to carry out the evaluation of the existing measures, including the international and European agreements with our international partners. But let me make it clear that my aim is to strengthen, not to weaken, our ability to prevent and prosecute terrorism in a more effective way.
As regards the exchange of information between Member States and European institutions, I fully agree that this is an essential aspect of the fight against terrorism. As you know, I have been active in this area. Over the past years, I have put forward a number of proposals on data protection in the third pillar, on the principle of availability and on data retention of electronic communications. Unfortunately, except for data retention, it has not yet been possible to reach agreement on these proposals in the Council, particularly on data protection in the third pillar. But I will continue to strive for their adoption and with the Portuguese proposal we have an agreement in principle to try to get a final adoption of the framework decision on data protection in the third pillar by December.
It is very often said that mutual trust is needed for effective cooperation, especially when combating terrorism. My view is that trust can be stimulated by us mainly in two ways. First, through ensuring that there is a clear and proper legal framework in place that provides confidence that information supplied will be treated in an appropriate manner and, secondly, through stimulating as many shared international experiences as possible, including joint training exercises so that people working in the field get to know and appreciate each other.
Concerning the Situation Centre (‘SitCen’), I should mention that it has certainly provided the Council with a valuable strategic analysis of the terrorist threat, and I have established, thanks to cooperation with Mr Solana, a very good practical cooperation on this. Nevertheless, I do not see a role for SitCen in the area of operational cooperation, certainly not as a coordinating tool for investigations, since its mandate is limited to dealing with non-personal information. This is rather a task for Europol and Eurojust. I believe these are organisations that should be better equipped to deal with such tasks.
We should not forget that the large majority of our citizens – 84% in the latest Eurobarometer – are strongly in favour of EU action to combat terrorists and organised crime. So, let us strengthen Europol and Eurojust based on that.
This morning, we learn that suspected terrorists have been arrested in Frankfurt, and the German Minister of Defence said an attack was imminent.
Naturally, any action we take must be in line with the fundamental rights acquis and with Article 6 of the Treaty. I intend to submit to the Member States a questionnaire on anti-terrorist measures they have adopted, on their effectiveness and on how these relate to the human rights framework. I am ready to share with you data and results of this exercise.
In conclusion, I believe that our counter-terrorist efforts clearly require joint action and the total dedication of the Council, Parliament and the Commission. I am ready to respond once again positively to further possible invitations from this Parliament and from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as I have been doing since my appointment at the Commission.
Do you believe that in all these cases no results have been achieved? Do you not believe that stopping the final stage of a terrorist attack is not in itself a fantastic result for Europe? My answer is – yes, it is.
So there is no room for complacency or letting our guard down. I would first of all like to take this very good opportunity to inform you of a package of measures which are in preparation by my services, and which will be adopted by the Commission this autumn in very close cooperation with the Portuguese Presidency. We are working on prevention and prosecution. This package will consist of a European action plan on the security of explosives, a proposal for an amendment of the Framework Decision on terrorism to deal with terrorist misuse of internet, and a proposal on European passenger name record (PNR) policy. In addition, the package will contain a report on evaluation of the implementation by the Member States of the Framework Decision on terrorism.
A few words on each of these elements:
The European action plan on explosives is a follow-up to the 2005 Commission communication on this topic, and aims to respond to repeated calls from the European Council and the Council of Ministers of the Interior to improve the explosives situation in Europe.
You will no doubt recall that the attacks in Madrid were committed using commercially available explosives and detonators, which prompted the call for EU action in this area. I am glad that I can report to you that a lot of good work has been done by our services together with a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives of the private sector. I have received what I think will prove to be a ground-breaking report from a public-private expert group that I have established, which contains around 50 valuable concrete recommendations to improve security of explosives, precursors and detonators across the EU. These recommendations will form the basis for the European action plan which should be adopted, as I said, before November.
The measures that will be proposed in it include, for example, the setting-up of a European explosives database at Europol with links to all the responsible services in Member States, in addition to an early warning system so that these services are informed very quickly, for example, when explosives have been stolen or a new terrorist modus operandi is discovered from credible intelligence information."@en1
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