French, Austrian and German leaders, Emmanuel Macron, Sebastian Kurz and Angela Merkel, are due to discuss the recent terrorist attacks in the EU on 10 November by videoconference – but also face-to-face in the case of Macron and Kurz, AFP reported, citing official announcements by the German Chancellor's party.
Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel will also take part in this meeting on terrorism, which will be preparing for the videoconference meeting of interior ministers on 13 November, the Commission confirmed.
The working lunch between Mr Macron and Mr Kurz will focus on “the fight against Islamist terrorism and a discussion on political Islam”, wrote the Austrian Chancellor on his Twitter account. On Sunday 8 November, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, were already in Vienna to pay tribute to the four victims of the attacks of 2 November.
On this occasion, they were to discuss with Chancellor Kurz “the European response to terrorism, including the strengthening of controls at Europe's external borders, the Schengen Treaty and the fight against online hatred at a European level”.
Ahead of the 13 November meeting, two draft declarations revealed by Bloomberg were to be sent to national ambassadors to the EU: one on how to fight terrorism and radical Islamism and defend European values, the other on improving the tools for accessing encrypted data to fight terrorism.
According to one source, Tuesday and Friday will be about taking stock of the measures implemented since 2015 and the wave of attacks in Europe, such as the interoperability of European information systems - which has not yet been finalised - or measures at the external borders.
Discussions will also focus on whether or not further action should be taken.
In the meantime, on decryption, the German EU Council Presidency wanted to clarify its intentions and indicated that “no proposals for a solution or requests for weakening encryption systems” are planned. The idea, at this stage, is to engage in a permanent dialogue with companies in order to find solutions that represent the least possible interference with encryption systems. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)