The European commissioners for Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and for the Security Union, Julian King, gave a generally satisfactory assessment on Wednesday 30 October when they presented the latest update on security in the European Union during the ‘Juncker’ Commission.
Avramopoulos and King detailed initiatives that have made the EU better prepared for different threats, such as: - the strengthening of the Europol agency, which has become a real hub in the fight against terrorism; - the strengthening of the Schengen Information System; - the establishment of an ‘entry/exit’ system to better control the comings and goings of people crossing the EU’s external borders; - the creation of new security alerts concerning foreign combatants whose presence on European soil should be added to the SIS.
The SIS system, for example, has been used 20 billion times over the last 5 years. There are no “fundamental rights without security”, Avramopoulos argued, for whom security is precisely “what citizens expect from the EU”.
The two commissioners emphasised the priority projects for the coming months. First, there is the fight against radicalisation and the spread of terrorist content online. Julian King said he hoped that the regulation on the removal of terrorist content online will be adopted before the end of 2019 (see EUROPE 12231/8, 12154/1), while interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) began on 17 October.
For external borders, institutions have been diligently invited to speed up the implementation of the EU travel authorisation system (ETIAS), which is based on an entry fee of €7 for citizens from non-Member States who do not require a visa. Technical amendments made last year to the ETIAS proposal are still under discussion, in particular in the European Parliament, which was urged by the Commission to speed up its work.
The same applies to the revision of the Visa Information System, as the negotiations have not yet been completed. With regard to cybersecurity and 5G technology, Member States are required to develop a risk mitigation toolkit by 31 December.
Other efforts still to be made: the Twenty-Eight have failed to implement several instruments designed to enhance security, linked, for example, to the ‘PNR’ Directive governing the collection of air passenger data. Only 13 Member States have implemented the new firearms directive, and 21 countries have yet to transpose the new money laundering rules. Another 23 Member States are also not in compliance with the provisions criminalising sexual abuse of children.
Link to the Commission's report: https://bit.ly/2JxBsfk (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)