Brussels, 14/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Venice, Italy on 11-12 May, the interior ministers of the six biggest EU member states - Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland - agreed to ensure better coordination of their campaigns against illegal immigration, drug-trafficking and terrorism. Commenting to the press on the first day of talks, Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the ministers had first looked at mechanisms governing legal immigration from a common viewpoint, namely that if legal entry mechanisms do not work properly, then illegal immigration will multiply. The ministers went on to look at the increase in cocaine snorting in the EU and how the cocaine got into Europe. Alongside the traditional routes from South America, new smuggling routes from Africa were being developed, explained the ministers in a joint statement. Amato said that because the drug traffickers had set up bases in Europe, there had to be counter-bases. Along with his European counterparts, he suggested setting up a centre in Lisbon to monitor the import of drugs by boat, and another in Gibraltar to monitor drug trafficking by land. World cocaine production is estimated to have risen by 3.5% to 910 tonnes in 2006, explains an Italian interior ministry press release.
The ministers said they backed the idea of a 'legal anti-terror network' to combat terrorist groups which threaten the West. Amato said they were confronting a network and therefore also had to form a network. He said the ministers had started thinking about the tools, including legal tools, available in each country that could be used to form a new legal network that respected the rule of law but was operational to deal with the network that had to be fought. In a controversial speech, UK home secretary John Reid said that politicians, who stuck to existing case law to the letter, were missing out on the chance of doing all they could to protect citizens from terrorist attacks. We have to work to update the law, protecting human rights and promoting fairness and justice, he said, but reflecting the reality of the conflict and struggles that we have to face. He said the job should return to leaders and not only to lawyers.
The G6 ministers said it was important to prevent and pursue behaviour inciting violence and racial hatred, welcoming the European Commission's idea of drawing up a map of Islamic radicalisation in the EU and organising a conference on young people and Islamic extremism. The Commission's plan is expected to be ready for the autumn. It will identify imams (Islamic preachers) preaching radical Islam and study the sources of funding and the training of imams, carrying out research into their role and ability to speak the language of the country they preach in, explained EU Security Commissioner Franco Frattini. On Tuesday 15 May, a meeting will be held in Brussels of leaders of all religious communities represented in Europe, where one of the subjects of discussion will be how to build dialogue and avoid sending messages inciting hatred and violence, added Frattini. In parallel, the ministers explain in their joint statement that deportation can be an effective way for states to protect their citizens from foreigners deemed to be a threat to national security. The ministers say that human rights will not be sacrificed, including the human rights of the deported foreigners. In this connection, Frattini highlighted the need to reach agreement on safe countries where dangerous people could be sent. For the moment, however, the idea of drawing up a list of safe countries has not been endorsed by all European commissioners. Attending the G6 meeting in Venice, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff took advantage of the meeting to discuss a new deal on the sharing of personal data of air passengers with his European counterparts. The current deal expires out on 31 July 2007. EUROPE will return to this. (bc)