Brussels, 11/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - In 2006, Europol listed 500 attacks in 11 of the 27 member states of the Union. This is one of the conclusions of the annual report presented in Brussels on Tuesday by the Director of Europol Max-Peter Ratzel, speaking before the committee of civil liberties of the European Parliament (EP). The Europol report, which is to be annual, making this one the first publication, includes a review of the various forms of terrorism in the EU (either by extreme Left-wing groups, separatists or Islamists), compiling data provided by the member states on the number of attacks and the number of people detained.
In total, the EU was affected on 498 occasions by terrorist attacks last year. Of these 498 actions, 424 were the work of separatist movements (mainly Corsican and Basque ones) and 55 were perpetrated by extreme Left or anarchist movements. In most cases, the point of these attacks was not to create victims. However, terrorism with a link to Islamism was a notable exception to this rule, Europol concluded. The organisation quotes the examples of the failed attacks of 2006 against aeroplanes taking off from London, or the attempted booby-trapped suitcase attacks in Germany. In both of these cases, the objective was clearly to create the maximum number of victims, Half of the 706 presumed terrorists arrested last year in 15 member states of the Union were also of Islamic origin. The reasons behind these arrests range from propaganda to recruitment, bankrolling and kidnapping. Europol noted that the legal investigations of the member states focused on 59 different terrorist groups. One third of the terrorists organisations investigated had carried out attacks outside the EU. Lastly, Europol stresses that the armed Basque separatists' group (ETA) has “rebuilt” its capacity to commit attacks since the cease-fire it announced in March 2006. On Sunday 8 April, ETA declared itself prepared to make new gestures towards a peace process, as long as the Spanish state ceases its “attacks” on the Basque Country. (bc)