Brussels, 13/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - During a plenary session debate on Tuesday 12 April in Strasbourg, a majority of MEPs at the European Parliament said that in order to fight terrorism efficiently, the European Union had to improve intelligence sharing, enhance its existing capacity and provide new tools, such as a European security agency.
MEPs were discussing the urgent measures to take for fighting terrorism, during a debate that followed the special meeting of Ministers for the Interior and Justice on 24 March, after the attacks in Brussels (EUROPE 11519). There was a prevailing consensus at the beginning of the discussions: terrorism is not "a recent series of events", nonetheless "a lot still needs to be done" at a European level, as emphasised by the Minister for Defence, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, speaking on behalf of the Dutch Presidency of the Council; the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and the representatives from the main political groups of the EP.
Manfred Weber, President of the EPP said that, "greater security demands greater co-operation in Europe". His group and the Greens support the idea of setting up a genuine European security agency because Europol is not enough and only collects "data voluntarily provided to it by member states". According to Mr Weber, a Europol that really is up to the task should have "the right to demand information". Guy Verhofstadt, the President of the ALDE is also convinced that this struggle must be by way of "Europol capitalisation and reinforcement". He is convinced that instead of having "28 databases, we need… a horizontal system, with compulsory information sharing".
The Social Democrats and the ALDE are also in favour of a "European Prosecutor" to help in the fight against terrorist organisations. Gianni Pittella (Italy) said that its role would be one of "heading investigations throughout the Union". He believes that it should have a "single intelligence system" to replace the, "current fragmented system". Mr Verhofstadt said that the European Prosecutor's Office is expected to be set up by the end of the year and must "be able to be used in cross-border cases of criminality and not just cases of financial fraud".
The ECR set itself apart from the other groups in this debate by opposing any strengthening of European tools in this field. Syed Kamall (United Kingdom) said that it is at a level of local communities and by supporting and encouraging projects that prevent people becoming terrorists that the EU should prioritise its action. He also said that they needed to move away from the idea that the only solution to the problem is Europe having more agencies because the intelligence experts do not trust the intelligence services and other countries.
The President of the GUE/NGL, Neoklis Sylikiotis (Cyprus), said that the EU should, above all, revise its foreign policy, which could have influenced "the rise in terrorism". He also denounced the fact that some of Europe's allies "such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, were trading with Daech". (Original version in French by Maëlle Didion)