Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid on 11 March, the European Union has decided to accelerate a Community strategy against international terrorism. The extraordinary meeting of Ministers for the interior and for justice held in Brussels on Friday 19 March gave the official go-ahead to the establishment of an EU anti-terrorism task force, with the task of coordinating the necessary measures “at the European dimension” to combat the action of terrorists with particular attention to the network headed by Al-Qaeda, “by now firmly established and active on the territory of the Union”. More specifically, the Ministers examined two proposals, one presented by the Irish Presidency, the other by the European Commission (this latter contains an invitation to “abandon a certain culture of secrecy”), containing the fundamental points of the new Community strategy in the sector, as follows. First, it was decided to institutionalize closer cooperation between the secret services of the member countries, though rejecting the joint Belgian and Austrian proposal to establish a new organization similar to the CIA in America; availing themselves of the system of reinforced cooperation, the “big” member states (Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain) have already convened two meetings of intelligence chiefs. Second, the Council has brought forward to 2005 the insertion in passports of biometric data of European citizens. Third, the five member states that have so far failed to absorb into their national legislation the European arrest warrant were “invited” to do so as soon as possible. Fourth, the provisions for the control of cross-border movements of capital and money laundering were reinforced to combat the sources of the funding of terrorism. Fifth, by the summer, the Union will have at its disposal the so-called “European register of terrorists”, a kind of EU data bank of European and non-European nationals sentenced and/or suspected of subversive activities. And sixth, governments and agencies in the sector have been given a mandate to put in place a procedure for tracing arms and explosives. Meeting in Brussels on 22 and 23 March, EU foreign ministers underlined the “need to remove the underlying causes of terrorism through dialogue with the whole of the Arab world”, with the imperative of “preventing a war of religion”. The Summit of Heads of State and Government on 25 and 26 March is called to adopt an anti-terrorism strategy and formalize the establishment of the European anti-terrorism coordination.
