” “United to defeat it

There has been a lot of talk recently about the problems of international terrorism and of the measures adopted at the EU level to respond to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. But, in the aftermath of the assassination of Italian Government labour relations adviser Marco Biagi, people are also asking what measures are being taken by EU countries to unmask and crack down on terrorism of national political stamp. We put this question to Niels Bracke , staff member of the General Secretariat of the EU Council, and adviser on questions of terrorism to the EU’s Justice and Internal Affairs Council. Has there been continuity in the European campaign against terrorism in recent years? “The campaign against terrorism is nothing new, but can be traced back to the period immediately following the second world war. Provisions that can be considered anti-terrorism can even be found in the Treaty of Rome that established the EEC. Terrorism has been fought at the international level for many decades now: so cooperation between countries in this field is no novelty. Nor is this cooperation even a European Community invention: the United Nations and the Council of Europe, among others, deservedly take precedence in this field. The campaign against terrorism began with a series of specific measures that combated some aspects of the phenomenon. More recently, jurisprudence has provided far more general and wide-ranging measures. The international community also has at its disposal numerous Conventions in the field of cooperation in law enforcement”. What provisions have been made by the more recent EU legislation? “The Treaty of Schengen represents an excellent example of anti-terrorism legislation: it expressly authorizes that the methods of cooperation adopted in conformity with the Treaty be used to combat terrorism and other threats to the national security of member states; for instance, provision is made for the reinstatement of frontier controls if aimed at the fight against terrorism. No one however can deny that the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon have accelerated and above all enriched the EU legislation in this field: the adoption of two common positions, of one regulation, of one decision and one directive at the end of 2001, and the conferral of new powers on the European police authority, Europol, and the launch of Eurojust, are undoubtedly due to the effort of cooperation being made at the world level to defeat Al-Qaeda and have been shown to be very effective also in dealing with European internal questions”. Are there European laws that pursue terrorists? “It cannot be claimed that there currently exists a basic EU law for the campaign against European terrorism, because that would require an amendment of the Treaties. Moreover, the European legislation does not yet permit the assets of terrorist persons or groups to be frozen, as is provided on the other hand for international terrorist networks: this is a task that still remains the responsibility of the individual member states. So terrorist organizations like ETA in Spain or the Red Brigades in Italy cannot be combated by sanctions of a European character. But penal investigations and actions can take place following the procedures for international cooperation. In this regard, some provisions of the common position adopted by the European Council in December last year are also applicable to European terrorism: in particular, it is affirmed that member states should devote maximum assistance to the prevention and campaign against terrorist acts, in the sphere of police and judicial cooperation on penal matters”.