On Thursday 7 June, the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament presented ten avenues of work for the report that the European Parliament’s special terrorism committee is currently drafting, in the hope that these proposals will influence the committee’s work.
The deputy leader of this special committee, Judith Sargentini from the Netherlands, and the spokesperson for the group on internal affairs, Jan Philipp Albrecht from Germany, both members of the Greens/EFA Group, told press on Thursday that they would like the policies retained by this committee to really be able to show their effectiveness and have a real impact. The Greens/EFA Group has indeed often criticised the proliferation of anti-terrorist instruments, especially the collection of data with the European PNR, the effectiveness of which has never been assessed. The group says over 250 initiatives have been launched following the terrorist attacks of recent years.
Based partly on the prevention of the terrorist threat, the recommendations focus, among other things, on radicalisation in prisons, and the training and availability of personnel to ensure the interoperability of information systems, which can only be effective with well trained personnel. Other proposals on the terrorism committee’s table are investing in the new European Prosecutor, whose competences should be able to extend to organised crime and the fight against terrorism, better following the financing of terrorism, strengthening the joint investigation teams between the member states, and training personnel on the issue of fundamental rights but also on the practices of their colleagues via a European Erasmus for police forces.
The two rapporteurs – Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, Germany) and Helga Stevens (ECR, Belgium) – are due to publish their work at the end of the month. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)