The European Commission is keeping up the pressure on the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to finalise as many legislative proposals as possible that will help to set in place the European security agenda before the European elections of May 2019.
"We have no time to lose" to set in place legislative initiatives aiming to guarantee the security of citizens, both in the physical world and online, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Wednesday 10 October.
By way of example, he referred to several proposals already on the table aiming to: - provide the European coastguard and border guards agency with 10,000 agents (see EUROPE 12113); - require digital platforms to take down any content inciting hatred or terrorism within an hour (see EUROPE 12095); - improve the interoperability of information systems in the fields of security, migration and border management.
European Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King stressed that improving interoperability was by no means about watering down data protection, but helping the national authorities to be able to detect multiple and stolen identities. "We shouldn't forget the Berlin Christmas market attacker was circulating with no less than 14 fake identities", he stressed.
King also made the case for finalising the legislative package reinforcing cyber-security, which makes provision, amongst other things, for the EU's ENISA agency to be given a dedicated mandate, ahead of the European elections (see EUROPE 12098).
Finally, the Commission considers that it is vital to speed up the work on the proposal to ensure that the European elections take place in an electoral environment free from any external manipulation (see EUROPE 12094). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)