Internal security and judicial cooperation
The EU and Counter-terrorism: Next Steps Hugo Brady Senior Research Fellow, CER
S
everal years after bombs claimed over 250 lives in London and Madrid, Europeans still face risks from terrorism. Recent events in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan have served as a reminder to western governments and their allies that Islamist terror cells remain active worldwide and continue to plot attacks at home and abroad. The growing strength of jihadist cells in North Africa, close to the EU’s borders, as well as in Yemen and the Horn of Africa, causes concern. And the United States still views the EU’s passport-free Schengen area as a potential haven for militants planning new attacks against America. The EU has no direct role in ensuring the internal security of its member states. Its institutions are not actively engaged in the day-to-day business of preventing terrorist attacks: their chief contribution is to ensure that the legal and practical structures for counter-terrorism cooperation are robust and effective. Terrorism is one of the main priorities of the G6, an internal security vanguard made up of the interior ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Almost all these countries feel threatened by terrorism and have elaborate national counter-terror systems. That means they have agencies and resources specifically dedicated to gathering counter-terrorism intelligence; can respond rapidly in the event of a terrorist attack to protect civilians and infrastructure; and, to some degree, have integrated counter-terrorism priorities into their foreign policies.
Amongst the other EU countries, Denmark and the Netherlands also feel threatened and have similar security set-ups as regards terrorism. But the rest of the member states have less developed counter-terror capabilities and rely on normal law enforcement and intelligence-gathering. Thus, a central purpose of the EU’s work on counter-terrorism is to help protect those member countries which feel threatened, by raising the internal security standards of all. The EU did agree on a common strategy in 2005 in which the member states categorised their common counter-terrorism efforts under the headings ‘prevent’, ‘protect’, ‘pursue’ and ‘respond’. But the strategy was mostly intended to show how the EU’s existing responsibilities were relevant to national counter-terrorism efforts, both before (prevent and protect) and after (pursue and respond) an attack. These objectives include
PART III – A RENEWED ACTION IN JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
| 117