Big Five to beef up EU security measures
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Published: March 19 2004 18:43 | Last Updated: March 19 2004 18:43
Europe's five biggest countries will take the lead in pushing through a wide range of counter-terrorism measures at next week's summit of European Union leaders.
The move comes after an emergency meeting of EU interior and justice ministers, called in the wake of last week's Madrid bombings, which killed 201 people.
Diplomats said it showed how the Big Five - Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy - were working closely to beef up existing structures and implement counter-terrorism measures agreed since September 11 2001 but not yet carried out by all EU member states.
"There is no need for new regulations," said Michael McDowell, justice minister of Ireland, which heads the EU's rotating presidency. Instead, "implementation of existing measures is now a matter of urgency".
Nicholas Sarkozy, French interior minister, backed by Otto Schily, David Blunkett, Angel Acebes and Giuseppe Pisanu, his German, British, Spanish and Italian counterparts respectively, want deadlines set for several measures.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, will appoint a counter-terrorism expert who will be given 180 days to see how all the counter-terrorism measures by the council representing member states can be co-ordinated.
Ministers will ask heads of state to agree rules for retaining communications data held by service providers for mobile telephones and the internet. They also want to speed up the introduction of a database on forensic material, available to all member states, and a date for the introduction of biometric features (eyes and fingerprints) for visas and passports. Security should be stepped up at ports and for cars coming in by ferries, they said.
Mr Schily insisted that countries must react as quickly as possible after an attack to share information and evidence. His comments were an indirect criticism of Spain, which told German security authorities the explosives used in last week's bombings were those used by Eta, the Basque separatist movement.
Member states called for support of Europol, the EU fledgling intelligence agency, with personnel, money and the scope to carry out investigations.
Jürgen Storbeck, head of Europol, criticised member states on Friday for paying almost lip service to the agency.
Mr Blunkett suggested member states should share more external and internal intelligence.
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