Brussels, 22/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Greatly shocked by the terrorist attacks in Madrid, the 25 Heads of State and Government are to adopt a declaration against terrorism at the European Council on 25 and 26 March to mark their "solidarity with the victims, their families and the people of Spain", and promising to do everything they possibly can to combat all forms of terrorism in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Union and the United Nations Charter, according to the draft declaration endorsed at Monday's General Affairs Council.
The General Affairs Council confirmed on Monday the commitment to be taken by the Twenty-Five at the European Council on 25 and 26 March to reinforce cooperation against terrorism by using existing instruments seriously but also by setting in place two new structures for coordination, and by adopting the solidarity clause contained in the draft constitutional treaty. The Foreign Ministers, who were preparing for adoption of a joint declaration by the Heads of State and Government at the European Council on Friday, took up the specific aims and the dates for adoption and implementation of the judiciary and police cooperation instruments already approved last Friday by the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (EUROPE of 20 March, p.4).
Several ministers took the floor to point out that one should not simply react to the attacks in Madrid on an ad hoc basis but rather that there should be a long term policy against terrorism. After the fashion of Dominique de Villepin of France, they also insisted on the need to take an interest in the causes of terrorism. "Foreign Ministers must deal with the root causes of terrorism. Injustice, frustration and divisions are what cause terrorism", Mr de Villepin told the press. In their declaration this Friday, the Heads of State and Government are expected to promise to take an interest in and to cooperate with third countries. High Representative Javier Solana is to report in June on implementation of all these measures.
The Council's Secretariat General will contain the two new cooperation structures, a coordinator for the Council's work and an intelligence structure. The European Council will call on High Representative Solana to present to the European Council in June - and no longer in 6 months' time - a proposal for integrating this intelligence structure within the Council Secretariat on all aspects of terrorism, in order to help the EU take decisions. The formula chosen goes further than the simple informal information network, advocated by countries like Germany and France, without going as far as the creation of a European Intelligence Agency proposed by Austria and the Benelux countries. The draft declaration specifies that this coordination will take place in the full respect of European Commission competence. In answer to questions at a press conference, Javier Solana specified that his proposal will be on cooperation for operational intelligence. "We already have a capacity" for the "analysis" chapter of intelligence begun end 2002 in an embryonic manner with several countries, he said. This structure is called the "Sitcen", or situation centre. The anti-terrorist coordinator will, for his/her part, be responsible for monitoring the work of the various Council formations concerning terrorism, and to ensure that implementation is as it should be.
In order to mark their solidarity in a symbolic way, the Heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Five should adopt at the European Council on 25 and 26 March a declaration close to the following text: "In the spirit of the solidarity clause laid down in Article 42 of the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, the Member States and the acceding States shall accordingly act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if one of them is the victim of a terrorist attack. They shall mobilise all the instruments at their disposal, including military resources to: - prevent the terrorist threat in the territory of one of them; - protect democratic institutions and the civilian population from any terrorist attack; - and assist a Member State or an acceding State in its territory at the request of its political authorities in the event of a terrorist attack. It shall be for each Member State or acceding State to the Union to choose the most appropriate means to comply with this solidarity commitment towards the affected State". The text is the same as that for the draft article of the constitutional treaty, with just three differences: 1) it only mentions terrorism and not natural disasters; 2) for legal reasons, one diplomat explains, the commitment is taken on behalf of Member States and not the European Union; 3) in the draft Constitution, an article sets out the details of certain arrangements for the implementation of the declaration of solidarity and provides for adoption of a text by the Council to specify these arrangements, but this article is not taken on board in the European Council draft declaration. Furthermore, the draft declaration no longer speaks of early implementation of the solidarity clause but of the decision to act in the "spirit" of this draft article.
The European council will insist on the use of instruments already adopted by the European Union including decisions on freezing assets for funding terrorist action. The Council should identify measures to identify holders and beneficiaries of bank accounts, but also to improve the working and effectiveness of the mechanism for freezing terrorist financing. The European Commission is invited to look at how to improve the regulation and transparency of charitable associations, so that they do not act as a cover-up for terrorist funding. The EU undertakes to dialogue with third countries on this issue. Among the new proposals to be made by the European Commission for judiciary and police cooperation, to be detailed in the declaration against terrorism, the European Council will give priority to the adoption of a database of persons condemned for terrorism or other serious crimes, as well as the proposal on keeping data by telephone and internet operators. The 25 are expected to pledge to adopt these two texts by June 2005 and no longer by December 2004 as the Home Ministers had foreseen last Friday. Furthermore, Member States will undertake to approve by 1 May the proposal of directive on compensating victims of crime. The European Commission is to be called upon to ensure that, as of this year, funds are available in the Community budget to help victims of terrorism. The Chief of Police Task Force is invited to draw up a report on the attacks in Madrid, in cooperation with the secret services of the Member States and Europol.
In an annex to the European Council declaration on terrorism, three pages will reaffirm seven objectives of the European action plan for combating terrorism adopted in September 2001: international cooperation, the fight against terrorist financing, strengthened actions of European Institutions against terrorism, security of international transport, strengthened ability to respond to an attack, fighting the root causes of terrorism, and strengthening cooperation with several priority countries.