Brussels, 05/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 December, eight EU member states - rallying around Belgium and France - met on the sidelines of the Home Affairs Council and discussed strengthening their cooperation to better monitor the phenomenon of European fighters leaving for Syria to fight for jihad.
This phenomenon reportedly involves 1,500-2,000 people, said France's Minister for the Interior Manuel Valls on Thursday. The Belgian, French, Spanish, German, British, Dutch, Swedish and Danish exchanged their assessment of the situation, which reportedly involves 184 French people (currently on the ground out of around 400 people in total - 14 of whom are dead, about a hundred of whom want to leave, and 80 of whom have now returned to France), according to Valls. There are around “100 and 150 Belgians”, Belgium's Minister for the Interior Joelle Milquet stated - although figures are always fluctuating. The ministers met on three occasions and want to increase their exchanges on “information, tools, analyses, and prevention practices”, said Milquet.
Call for European Parliament's responsibility on European PNR. The idea is to strengthen cooperation between police and intelligence staff, and in the absence of European PNR - the lack of which the ministers deplore - to develop links between the various national PNR systems. Believing the system too vague in its intentions and too intrusive of private life, the European Parliament largely buried the European PNR proposal in 2012. The ministers have since written a letter to the Parliament for it to revive the text. “We are calling for the Parliament's responsibility in this”, Valls stated.
The ministers also discussed the profile of the European fighters - a profile which is often identical. “Fairly young, from a broken social and family background, with a history of offending”, said Valls. While it is important to prevent these people leaving, the ministers also discussed means of strengthening the monitoring of these fighters when they return to their country. At this stage, no attempted attack against national interests has been identified, however, said Valls.
Other points of discussion included the possible rapprochement of criminal laws and strengthening legislation to fight this phenomenon. Some countries already ban their nationals from going to fight abroad but the idea of a ban on “going to fight outside a regular army is also a good idea”, Valls added. In addition, the ministers also decided to start a dialogue with the internet giants - such as Facebook or Twitter - to help them fight cyber-jihadism and to remove certain content. However, the US - which is also associated to this European discussion group - could have some reservations as regards the principle of freedom of expression. Lastly, work will also have to be strengthened with countries that are hubs for Syria - currently Morocco and Turkey.
“When the conflict erupted in Syria, it was difficult to take action because it was about going to fight a regime that was condemned by everyone - which made incrimination difficult”, Valls and Milquet said. However, the situation is different today. “Most of these individuals have shown their resolve to fight in organisations close to al-Quaeda”, they stated. (SP/transl.fl)