Brussels, 05/06/2014 (Agence Europe) On 5 June, European home affairs ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, attempted to identify some new responses to the threat posed by the return of combatants who had gone off to Syria to train for jihad. Nine ministers who are more concerned by this phenomenon have planned to meet again, in Milan on 9 July, to adopt concrete measures.
These countries, led by France and Belgium, which were directly involved on 24 May in the murders perpetrated by Mehdi Nemmouche at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, and bringing together Denmark, Spain, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria and Sweden, met informally in the early morning and agreed on a series of measures they expect to make more concrete at their meeting in Milan.
These measures include: improving the exchange of information between member states and better use of the so-called Passenger Name Records (PNR). There being no European PNR system (it is still pending at the European Parliament), 14 similar projects are currently being developed in member states and are being funded by the EU, said EU antiterrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove on Thursday morning. He explained that these projects now had to be linked up. These PNR programmes, which give airlines the right to keep their passengers' personal data for a certain period and transfer them to the services responsible for law and order to analyse, would apply to at risk flights.
Possible options mentioned also focused on enhancing external EU border controls, including on European nationals. The difficulty resides in preventing the systematic controls of European citizens, which is banned under the Schengen Code, whilst carrying out targeted controls.
Another measure would involve enhancing mutual information and follow-up when someone returning from Syria is detected. This would be done through “Schengen signals or PNR data”. Mehdi Nemmouche had indeed actually been identified by the German authorities on 18 March at Frankfurt airport when he was coming back from Bangkok. Nonetheless, he was able to commit murder in Brussels two months later. Arriving in Luxembourg, the German minister for home affairs said that all the lessons had to be learned. The checks had been correctly carried out in Germany, he pointed out and the individual had been flagged up by the French authorities as a potential threat. Thomas de Maizière, however, asked whether it would not have been better to arrest suspects.
This is the difficulty facing the ministers for home affairs. So far, no country has made it a criminal offence to fight abroad. De Kerchove, however, explained that all these countries did have at least a law to prevent such acts. Denmark does impose penalties for combat training abroad. Belgium has a law against foreign mercenaries. The United Kingdom is preparing new legislation defining suspect behaviour. All these instruments could be used more fully.
Other possible options could involve withdrawing passports from suspect individuals to prevent them leaving a specific territory, which is currently the case in Germany. Withdrawing nationality is also being suggested in the United Kingdom. The UK would also like to be more involved in the Schengen Information System (SIS and SIS2), which issue alerts regarding certain individuals.
De Kerchove said that it was imperative that the EU developed its PNR programme. He believes that this is “the most efficient tool” for tracking Jihadis and was also the best prevention method. He called on member states to launch awareness campaigns about the very real dangers of combatants in Syria and argued that “we need to explain to these youngsters who are tempted to leave about the horror waiting for them there, the cruelty of the action they may possibly be encouraged to commit”.
A European task force is also expected to be set up soon on providing information and a counter discourse to tackle radicalism and its violent implications. This proposal was being put forward by the United Kingdom and received broad support. Other possibilities include: transferring information to Interpol and Europol, as well as strengthening cooperation with non-EU countries, particularly Turkey.
De Kerchove said that this phenomenon constituted “a major threat… and will undoubtedly continue over the next few years”. Speaking in Brussels on 4 June during the G-7 meeting, the French president, François Hollande, said that “awareness about what is currently happening is encouraging us to cooperate more”. The leaders meeting in Brussels also adopted a declaration on the subject and called for cooperation to be stepped up with countries on Syria's border, as well as following up on funding for terrorism.
According to French estimates, almost 300 young French citizens have left for Syria to take part in the fighting. Around 100 are in transit for destinations held by the rebels and another 100 or so have already returned from Syria. In total, more than 2,000 Europeans are on the point of leaving or have already gone to the country. Germany has estimated that 320 have left the country for Syria. (SP)