Washington, 23/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - As far as the United States is concerned, recently foiled terrorist attacks show the need for extra effort in exchange of information between the US and the EU. On Monday 21 June, David Heyman, Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said: “The last year shows that we are still under the risk of terrorist attack. In past years, the Al-Qaeda model has been focused on large networked attacks. And now it's more self-starter individuals who are largely unknown”. Many attempted attacks demonstrate this, like the failed 25 December 2009 attack on an Amsterdam-Detroit flight, the preparations for a terrorist attack in Denmark in January this year, an attack in Denmark in the caricatures of Mohammed case and the failed Times Square attack in New York in May 2010. Heyman said: “Some individuals should have been known better if we had information sharing. Since 25 December of last year we have done an internal review and we come away with the conclusion that is critically important, including in all of this the tool of PNR (…) to know if somebody is involved in criminal activities. In 2009, one third of the people identified with the nexus of terrorism were identified with PNR. We found this to be an operationally effective tool. In past years, data and civil liberties have been protected. We have had very little complaint.' Approval of the PNR deal signed between the EU and the United States in 2007 is still awaited from the European Parliament, but the European Commission recently announced that it would be unveiling a draft PNR package and foreign strategy after the summer break, setting out criteria for any agreement with non-EU countries, suggestions on how to re-negotiate the deals with the United States, Australia and Canada, and proposals for a new European PNR. EUROPE asked Heyman whether he would be prepared to re-negotiate a deal, if required, to meet European Parliament demands in that the EP has shown itself to be very persistent with its rejection of the draft Swift deal. He said he was awaiting proposals from the European Commission but the PNR had been in operation for 20 years and been re-negotiated three times already, most recently in 2007. Heyman suggested that further changes to an agreement that proved its value in practice would not necessarily be very helpful. (B.C./transl.fl)