Brussels / Washington, 23/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The High Level Transatlantic Group, forum of dialogue and discussions between senior American and Community officials, is on Wednesday to turn to the lengthy list of measures that the United States suggests the Union take to "contribute to the international effort against terrorism". The list, drawn up by the White House, was forwarded to the Presidents of the European Commission and European Council, Romano Prodi and Guy Verhofstadt, through the number two of the American Mission in Brussels, James Foster, in a letter dated 16 October. It is - in 10 points, 47 proposals - the response of President Bush to the invitation Guy Verhofstadt had made of him, in Washington last month, of telling Europeans "what needs doing" to strengthen transatlantic co-operation against the "scourge" that had just sent Americans into mourning.
This list, which Washington hopes will "provide a sound basis for discussions and co-operation" is aimed at ten or so areas. Some suggestions aim at initiatives that already exist, but in some places the Fifteen and their partners candidates for accession, are asked to envisage additional efforts, painful even at times (notably where they concerns extradition to States where the death penalty is still applied), that they may find difficult in agreeing to. Here is an overview of these proposals, to which the Commission may provide an initial response (Member States having been consulted within the "transatlantic working group") in the coming days:
1. Eliminating the financing of terrorism, including sharing all possible information concerning terrorists' financial activity and bank accounts via secret services, financial institutions and legal authorities; extending the scope of activity of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the relevant Egmont Group units to cover transfers of money to terrorists; full implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions on the Taliban (1333 and 1373); ratifying the relevant UN Conventions; adopting the draft EU Directive on preventing the use of the financial system to launder money, and the framework decision on freezing assets; blocking activities connected with terrorism under the draft Directive on insider dealing; stepping up the exchange of information between national financial surveillance authorities (for preventative purposes); asking future EU Member States (current candidate countries and associated countries) to make the same commitments as the EU; and more.
2. Police and judicial co-operation: Considering alternatives to extradition (including expulsion and deportation whenever this is more effective and legally possible; reviewing the draft framework decision on recognising arrest warrants in order to get rid of "discrimination" against extradition requests from the US and other third countries; authorising and encouraging police authorities and local magistrates in Member States and candidate countries to deal with the US legal authorities directly; and scrapping the notion of "political crime" that can be used by defence lawyers to block the extradition of terrorists.
3. Mutual legal assistance: overcoming dual criminality obstacles, or in other words extending to the United States the abandonment of this concept, which was requested of the Fifteen at the Ghent Summit; permitting expedited access to critical bank records and other financial records in Member States; and whenever possible, permitting American judges to call directly (orally) upon their European counterparts for access to a dossier or to invite witnesses to give evidence.
4. Data protection: tackling the problems in this field in the context of "law enforcement and counter-terrorism imperatives"; creating adequate capabilities for investigating terrorism cases that involve the use of the internet; revising draft privacy directives that call for mandatory destruction to permit the retention of critical data for a reasonable period.
5. Europol: mainly making available to the United States all information on relevant terrorist cases, and subsequently broadening such cooperation to other criminal cases - and Europol, which should "share with US authorities summaries of terrorism cases".
6. Export Control/Non-proliferation: ensuring that the candidate countries (mainly Cyprus and Malta) set in place effective control systems; improving the detection and prosecution of front companies and entities involved in the export or trans-shipment of sensitive items to countries; increasing EU assistance to Russia, the New Independent States and other states at-risk to help control, protect, and account for sensitive chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear facilities and material.
7. Multilateral and diplomatic support: helping the United States to isolate the States that "continue to harbour terrorists"; supporting the US position in UN debates on terrorism (mainly the definition of terrorism), and giving diplomatic support in Washington including with those countries with which the US does not have direct diplomatic relations.