EU anti-terror coordinator warns of continued threat
Gijs de Vries sees differences in European and American approaches
The European Union’s coordinator of anti-terrorist activities, Dutch politician Gijs de Vries, warns that serious terrorist attacks against EU member states are quite possible.
"The threat is serious and it is real. No country can consider itself immune. We must learn from New York and Madrid to expect the unexpected. The risks are not limited to Islamic fundamentalists; for instance, (the Basque organisation) ETA is still capable of launching attacks", said de Vries in a joint interview with Helsingin Sanomat, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, and Denmark’s Politiken.
"The worst possible nightmare" in the view of de Vries would be an attack using chemical, biological, or radioactive bombs.
For that reason he calls on EU member states to prepare to help each other in case of such an attack.
The EU’s new eastern border is also a matter of concern. DeVries says that the border must be strengthened to prevent terrorists from bringing in material for the building of weapons of mass destruction.
The bombings in Madrid in the early part of the year were a reminder to EU member states of how vulnerable European open societies can be in the face of terrorists. No matter what kinds of anti-terrorist actions are proposed, de Vries feels that it is important to respect citizens’ fundamental rights.
He notes that in this respect, Europeans have sought to stick to their principles in negotiations with the United States on the extradition of suspected criminals to the USA.
As EU member states will not extradite suspects to a country where they could face the death penalty, the USA has offered guarantees that no suspects extradited from the EU to the United States would be sentenced to death.
Another difference in the approaches of the EU and the USA is that the Americans talk of a "war" on terror, while the Europeans prefer to speak of a "fight". It is also rare to hear a European talking about uprooting the causes of terrorism.
De Vries nevertheless observes that in its development aid programmes, the EU supports poor countries and their administrations in efforts to deprive extremist movements of their support base.
"Terrorism grows in countries that do not have good government, and where human rights are not respected. For that reason, the development policy of the EU seeks to support good administrative practices."
De Vries’ superior, the EU foreign affairs envoy Javier Solana, is currently involved in discussions with Russia on increasing cooperation in anti-terrorist activities in the wake of the Beslan school massacre.
"Russian security personnel have been fairly interested in sticking to their autonomy, and the Russians have not been interested in closer cooperation. The Russians themselves must decide on this."
De Vries would like to see more practical cooperation in the fight against terrorism by EU member states.
"We need more political commitment to the implementation of anti-terrorist action. Citizens cannot be served by merely approving decisions in Brussels. They should be implemented in the home country as well."
Although the EU and its member states cannot fully guarantee the safety of the public, de Vries notes that much can be done to minimise the threat. He says that there should be a focus on stopping the flow of money to the terrorists.
"Terrorists need money for their safe houses and forged identity papers. In addition to money laundering, we should also monitor transfers of cash, because we have noticed that increasing amounts of money are moving around outside the banking system, in the form of cash for instance. We need to be more vigilant on the borders of the EU."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 27.9.2004 - TODAY |
 EU anti-terror coordinator warns of continued threat |
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