The home affairs ministers of the EU Member States adopted an unchanged declaration on the fight against terrorism (see EUROPE 12600/17) and the responses to be given to the recent attacks, in a videoconference on Friday 13 November, while maintaining a concern to maintain the cohesion of societies. They highlighted the defence of the fundamental values of the EU, taking care not to target any religion and to avoid internal divisions.
On this “extremely difficult” issue, according to German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the ministers committed themselves to stepping up cooperation in information exchange, to continuing to implement tools already decided upon in the wake of the attacks in 2015 and 2016, such as the interoperability of databases, or to improving security at the EU’s external borders.
During this discussion, the ministers of the EU27 emphasized the “fundamental values, freedom of expression”, but also the fact that we must not “divide our societies”.
It is “not a question of fighting one religion, but of fighting all terrorism, violent and radical extremism, and we will do our best to combat this phenomenon”, added the Minister, who has scheduled a further discussion on these topics in December at the next Ministerial Council.
For her part, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, after paying tribute to the victims of the attacks on the Stade de France and the ‘Bataclan’ on 13 November 2015, stressed that the debate on terrorism should not divide societies and communities. “We are one society and we must all fight together”, she commented at a press conference.
She was quick to point out that much had been done in the wake of the attacks of 2015 and 2016 and that the Schengen area “is more secure today than it was five years ago”. Numerous pieces of legislation have in fact been adopted, in particular those on new alerts in the Schengen Information System, the entry/exit system, the ETIAS form, systematic checks at the external borders - including on European nationals - and the interoperability of databases.
Not everything is perfectly implemented, she said, such as firearms legislation, interoperability, or systematic checks at external borders, which are not done in 22% of cases, leaving room for improvement.
On 9 December, the Action Plan against Terrorism will also propose new avenues, such as a new mandate for Europol, but also a revision of the API Directive (the type of passenger data collected) or the Prüm Decision, which organises cooperation between Member States on the exchange of DNA or fingerprint files.
The Commission will also present the Digital Services Act, which is supposed to boost the tracking of violent content online, and Ms Johansson and Mr Seehofer reiterated on Friday how much they also want the regulation on the withdrawal of terrorist content to be adopted (the next trilogue will take place next week).
With regard to the EU’s external borders, the German Minister noted a consensus in the discussion in favour of tighter controls, also for “security reasons”. This debate is halfway between the Pact on Asylum and Migration and the new preliminary examination procedure, which, according to one source, was cited by several speakers in this discussion on terrorism.
If everything was “perfect” in the area of migration, “we wouldn't have needed the new Pact”, the minister said, believing that some of its provisions will meet certain security objectives.
As regards the recasting of Schengen and its external dimension, the Commissioner for her part announced a first meeting with the Member States on the subject on 30 November to discuss these avenues. The Commission then plans to put proposals on the table in May 2021.
Link to the statement: https://bit.ly/32FH8gZ (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)