Amsterdam, 25/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The EU is currently experiencing its highest terrorist threat for ten years, according to a statement made by the European Police Cooperation Agency (EUROPOL) on Monday 25 January. Europol made this announcement during the inauguration of the European Centre for Counterterrorism (ECTC), which is in charge of coordinating information from national cells involved in combating terrorism.
The Paris attacks on 13 November confirmed the international dimension of Islamic State's action and this new kind of attack, like the increasing number of foreign combatants, present real dangers for the EU, explained Europol in a report. The agency says that new attacks could happen in the future and “Therefore there is a great need within the European Union to strengthen our response to terror”.
According to Europol Director, Rob Wainwright, Islamic State has developed a new combat capacity for carrying out large-scale attacks particularly concentrated in Europe and France. According to this report, there is not, however, any concrete proof that the terrorists are using the flows of refugees to get into the EU undetected, explains the Europol report. On the other hand, the agency points out that there is a real risk that the refugees, particularly Sunni Muslim Syrians, could be vulnerable to radicalism once they are in Europe, explains Europol.
Asked to comment on this information, the French Ministry of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, explained that this report had already been submitted in December and that he already knew that “the terrorist threat remains very high”. The French Minister, however, did not confirm reports of terrorist training camps existing in the European Union.
The counterterrorist centre inaugurated on Monday by Ministers for the Interior will seek to coordinate the response from member states to terrorism and improve information sharing among the different services responsible for this issue. The member states will be expected to send experts to represent their respective countries. Europol is based in The Hague and will be headed by Manuel Navarrete Paniagua from Spain. The ECCT currently has 39 members, including 5 seconded national experts. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)