Brussels, 02/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 5 June, EU home affairs ministers will discuss the case of Mehdi Nemmouche, the French suspect apprehended in Marseilles on Saturday 30 May on suspicion of having killed four people on 24 May at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. The discussion on European nationals leaving for Syria to become Jihadi fighters and who represent a potential threat upon their return to the EU was already on the agenda, but is expected to take a particular turn in light of these recent events. On the basis of a note by the EU anti-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, ministers will discuss ways of improving the exchange of information on these young Europeans travelling from country to country.
The question of the European PNR system, the EU's own system for the collection of airline passengers' data which could be used for intra-EU flights and which was proposed in 2011, may also be discussed again. This project, which has the support of the member states, was rejected by the European Parliament and it has not been possible to resurrect it until now. “The new assembly will be dealing with the dossier”, a Council source told us, noting that the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU annulling the directive on the retention of data for anti-terrorism purposes and tightening up the justifications required to keep data in this way “has poured cold water on the process”. This “certainly complicates things for the European PNR”. Another possible discussion is making better use of the Schengen Information System, SIS, newly remodelled as SIS2, to check passengers on borders. According to the first reports to have filtered through, the French suspect, who is originally from northern France, is believed to have become radicalised during periods of imprisonment. Upon his release from prison in late 2012, Nemmouche travelled to Syria via Brussels, London, Beirut and Istanbul. There, he is believed to have joined the militia of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
At midday on Monday, the European Commission, through the spokesperson to Cecilia Malsmtröm, Michele Cercone, indicated its availability to the member states to provide them with any assistance. The Commission has been proposing the European PNR, a system of smart and incoming/outgoing borders (which will make it easier to identify individuals entering and leaving the EU), since 2011, and the creation of a radicalisation prevention network following the killing spree of Anders Breivik in Norway the same year, Cercone stated. However, he rejected the idea that any reform of the rules on freedom of movement within the EU would be necessary, as the member states already have “all the instruments they need to control their borders”. (SP)