|
Eu nations set to name antiterror czar { March 19 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3880554,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3880554,00.html
EU Nations Set to Name Anti-Terror Czar
Friday March 19, 2004 7:16 PM
By CONSTANT BRAND
Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European security officials agreed Friday to appoint an ``anti-terrorism czar,'' but balked at calls for a new European intelligence agency modeled after the CIA.
Interior and justice ministers from European Union countries met in response to the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 202 people and raised fears Europe would become a new battleground in the war on terror.
The ministers said they would ask EU heads of government to name an ``anti-terrorism czar'' during their summit here next week and declare that the Europeans will ``do everything within their power to combat all forms of terrorism.''
The ministers also identified steps that could be taken to enhance cooperation, including a European terrorism database, mandatory national identity cards and increased security for train stations, airports and other vulnerable targets.
Those proposals will be reviewed by the EU foreign ministers who meet in Brussels on Monday and by heads of government at their two-day summit beginning Thursday.
However, the ministers rejected calls by Belgium and Austria to establish a centralized European intelligence agency - loosely modeled after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency - to serve as a clearinghouse for information from spy services of the member countries.
Despite the carnage in Madrid, some national secret services were still reluctant to share information across an expanded European Union, which will grow from 15 members to 25 in May.
Instead, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, suggested the secret services of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain could take a leading role in fashioning a unified European response to terrorism.
He said officials from those services will meet Monday in Madrid to review the train bombings and discuss how to improve anti-terrorism cooperation.
British Home Secretary David Blunkett said he saw no reason to create a new intelligence service and instead urged European countries to take action on measures agreed to after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
These include establishment of an EU-wide arrest warrant, a common definition of terrorism and minimum and maximum sentences for terrorists.
Eleven of the current 15 EU members have yet to implement laws enabling police to ask other EU countries to tap phones and monitor bank accounts.
``What I'm interested in is hard, practical action, like sharing of communications data which roots back the activities of terrorists, which gets into the use of mobile phones, and the Internet,'' Blunkett said.
EU countries have not been entirely successful in cooperating on intelligence-gathering.
For example, Germany was angry at Spain's initial refusal to say what sort of explosives were used in the Madrid blasts. And in 1998, France recalled a French major from Bosnia after allegations that his contacts with Bosnian Serbs scuttled a NATO mission to arrest a war crimes suspect.
``There is cooperation among secret services, but there is room for improvement,'' Dutch Interior Minister Johan Remkes said.
Washington will be closely watching the measures the Europeans accept. On Thursday, a European Parliament committee threatened to go to court to block an agreement allowing U.S. authorities to collect personal data on airline passengers bound for the United States, saying it undermined privacy rights.
The United States has demanded that all airlines provide passenger data within 15 minutes of departure and threatened fines of up to $6,000 per passenger and the loss of landing rights for noncompliance.
The EU justice commissioner, Antonio Vitorino, acknowledged the Europeans have been slow to take steps agreed on after the Sept. 11 attacks, but insisted all ministers were in accord on the need to set ``strict deadlines.''
It was unclear what powers the ``anti-terrorism czar'' would have, although officials said the main task would be to improve coordination. The official would report to Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy and security chief.
As a first step, the EU plans to beef up an existing intelligence threat assessment cell at EU headquarters. The ministers also recommended EU-wide rules that phone and Internet records should be retained for at least two years to help police trace clandestine contacts.
Juergen Storbeck, head of Europol, the EU police agency, told the ministers he saw ``no immediate threat'' of new terrorist attacks. But he stressed the need to reinforce intelligence cooperation ahead of the European soccer championships in Portugal and the Olympics in Greece.
|
|
