Julian King, the new British commissioner, who has responsibility for Security Union, promised MEPs in his initial hearing that he would come to meet them regularly. Addressing members of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee (LIBE) on Tuesday 8 November, he was loquacious and energetic, confirming the upcoming presentation of a raft of proposals to boost the EU’s defences against terrorism.
As he had done when accompanied by Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in mid-October (see EUROPE 11644), King told MEPs that the European Commission would unveil a proposal next week to set up an EU travel permit system for travellers from countries not requiring a visa. This proposal, mostly carried by Avramopoulos, will be discussed by the college of cmmissioners next week. In November, the Commission will also unveil a draft directive on European PNR.
Introducing a system for collecting information about European air passengers travelling to or from countries outside the EU, the draft legislation is having difficulty in being transposed in the all the member states (see EUROPE 11537). The Commission will publish measures to help the laggards with the aim of completing transposition of the legislation in 2018. In October, it announced new financing to this end.
In December, the Commission will issue a raft of proposals to improve use by the member states of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in order to improve the quality of information provided and create a new type of warning, explained King. These proposals include technical measures and should enable people to be found in the fingerprint database using a new type of alert. Member states will be asked to add to SIS people banned from entering their country and those for whom a return order has been issued.
Speaking nearly a year after the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, the commissioner pointed out that despite progress, the terror threat remains highly present and indiscriminate. In this connection, member states and European Parliament alike need to step up their efforts to implement the decisions already taken, he said. The commissioner was referring to the firearms question, the directive tackling terrorism and reform of the Schengen border code to introduce automatic controls of all travellers crossing the EU’s external borders. All these issues are subject to negotiations between the Council and the Parliament.
The commissioner announced a package of measures in December to criminalise money-laundering and lay emphasis on the mutual recognition of decisions to freeze or confiscate criminal groups’ assets.
Also in December, a first report will be published on work on interoperability of European databases and whether to set up a one-stop-shop to centralise all these databases and make them accessible – under certain conditions and respecting data protection rules – to European police forces, added King.
On the question of preventing radicalisation, King pointed out that the EU is prepared to finance new projects. On Wednesday 9 November, a meeting of experts will be held in Brussels from the radicalisation awareness network (RAN) set up in 2011. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)