Brussels, 10/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - G6 Home Secretaries (France, Spain, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Poland) met up in Paris on Thursday 6 November to call for the adoption of common legislation in the Union to tackle the phenomenon of combatants who have left to fight jihad abroad. They also called for Internet monitoring to be stepped up.
They highlighted the need to adopt the directive on the European PNR presented in 2011. This consists in gathering data from airline passengers on flights outside the EU or, indeed, on flights within it. This has been suspended since the EP's civil liberties committee froze the dossier in 2013. The French Home Secretary, Bernard Cazeneuve, said “all member states already support this initiative and we now have to convince the European Parliament”. He also explained that the question was being debated by MEPs and that they needed to find a compromise, adding, “we need to be able to convince but with more guarantees” on the question of civil liberties. According to the German authorities, around 3,000 nationals from Western Europe, including 400 Germans have joined the ranks of Islamic State (IS). Cazeneuve stated: “Since the beginning of the year, the number of French combatants leaving has increased by 82% and now stands as a figure that is slightly less than 1,000”.
France said that the number of French citizens involved had increased from 555 to 932 since 1 January, according to a report by AFP. The EP's civil liberties committee is due to discuss the subject during a hearing on Tuesday 11 November. The British rapporteur, Timothy Kirkhope (ECR), would like to kickstart this dossier again, which heads of state and government and the EU have demanded, on many different occasions during their recent meetings, to be completed by the end of this year. (SP)