Sir Julian King, whose hearing before the committee on civil liberties of the European Parliament will take place in Strasbourg on Monday 12 September, has pledged to take action to reinforce the measures to fight terrorism and organised crime if he is made European Commissioner for the Security Union.
The candidate commissioner, who is highly familiar with the workings of the EU, will be supporting the implementation of the European Security Agenda 2015, but he feels that it is most of all necessary to reinforce the EU's anti-terrorist action in the digital sphere.
"We should invest much more in cyber-security", King said in his written responses to the prior questions put to him by the members of the European Parliament. He went on to add: "strengthening our resilience (to attacks) also requires improving the sharing of information, and we need to look at the overall landscape of IT systems to see what improvements are needed".
King also plans to tackle the challenges identified in making the existing information systems, such as the Schengen Information System or the Interpol stolen travel document database, more effective and interoperable (see EUROPE 11536). He recalled that the Commission has set in place a high-level expert group responsible for looking at the legal, technical and operational obstacles to improved interoperability in these information systems.
King also intends to work with the member states – and possibly to lean on them a little if necessary – to ensure that legislative acts already agreed upon are concretely set in place. Technical and financial assistance, in particular, is a possibility, in order to help the states set specialised units in place in the framework of the 'PNR' directive on the transfer of the data of airline passengers (see EUROPE 11450). "I will not shy away from infringement proceedings when necessary", the British diplomat pledged.
One of the most challenging aspects of King's role will be coordinating his work with other commissioners, such as Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is responsible for Migration and Home Affairs. The candidate commissioner said that his work will come in the framework of the collegial work of the Commission, that he will work in constant coordination with Avramopoulos and will be in regular touch with the MEPs.
King, who was previously head of cabinet for two commissioners and currently serves as the British ambassador to France, said that he was "proud" to be British and European, and sees "no contradiction between the two". Calling for the decision of the British to leave the EU to be respected, he nonetheless added that the EU has a key role to play in the areas of his future competence and in tackling trans-national threats.
The candidate commissioner was put forward by former British Prime Minister David Cameron following the resignation of Lord Jonathan Hill in response to the British referendum in June, which was won by those in favour of the United Kingdom leaving the EU (see EUROPE 11580). (Original in French by Mathieu Bion)