The EU27 did not have a very long discussion on security and terrorism on Friday, 11 December, as the other topics on the agenda, such as climate change, occupied more of the EU leaders’ time, as the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, acknowledged at the final press conference after the summit.
In conclusions almost unchanged from the first versions (see EUROPE 12616/11), the EU27 condemn the recent attacks in Conflans, Nice and Vienna and stress the importance of providing support to the victims of terrorist acts and of fully implementing the relevant European Directives.
The European Council welcomes the Commission’s presentation on 9 December of its Counter-Terrorism Plan (see EUROPE 12619/14) and reaffirms the role of its Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at a time when the Commission intends to set up a similar structure at the same level.
Regarding radicalisation, the European Council stresses the importance of preventing radicalisation and tackling extremism, including online.
Therefore the European Council awaits with interest the draft Regulation on digital services which the Commission will present on 15 December to combat illicit content online.
While a provisional agreement has been reached between negotiators (see EUROPE 12620/11), the institution also calls for the rapid adoption of the proposal on combating the dissemination of terrorist content online.
The conclusions further recall that law enforcement and judicial authorities must be able to exercise their prerogatives, both online and offline. The European Council therefore stresses, without mentioning encryption, “the need to advance work on the retention of data necessary to combat serious crime”.
Finally, the text also calls for the strengthening of Schengen and external borders.
Link to the conclusions: https://bit.ly/2JT7cPu (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)