EU agrees further anti-terror cooperation
Charles Clarke said last night that European security ministers had agreed on the “substance” of measures to improve data sharing and cooperation to tackle terrorism across the EU.
The home secretary chaired an emergency meeting of the justice and home affairs council yesterday to which he put plans to force companies to retain mobile phone and internet data for between six months and a year.
Following agreement on this and other plans to improve cooperation among member states, Mr Clarke said new legislation was likely to be in place within the next two to three months.
“There was a lot of evidence given today of the importance of this data for detecting and preventing terrorism, and indeed other crimes, and there was a great readiness by all my colleagues to make the agreements that are necessary,” he told Channel Four News.
A statement from the council declared that, following last week’s terror attacks on London, it “strengthens its commitment to combating terrorism and upholding the fundamental principles of freedom, security and justice”.
As a result, its “immediate priority” is to build on the existing framework for investigating terrorists across borders to impede their planning, support networks and funding.
Measures agreed in Brussels included sharing more information on lost and stolen explosives, tackling terrorist finances by regulating wire transfers of money and money laundering, and ensuring common standards for nations with ID card schemes.
The council also urged member states to improve the exchange of police and judicial information through Europol and Eurojust, and cooperate on the best ways to improve national counter-terrorism measures.
Expressing its “profound condolences” to the London victims, it said it was vital that the EU be able to manage and minimise the consequences of terrorist attacks, and recommended that member states carry out regular counter-terrorist exercises.
In addition, it highlighted the importance of providing “solidarity and support to the victims of terrorism” and in particular working on ways to “counter radicalisation and terrorist financing” both within the EU and through international cooperation.
Meanwhile, Mr Clarke denied that some of the men suspected of carrying out last Thursday’s attacks were arrested last year.
French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy had claimed that a UK delegation at an EU counter-terrorism meeting told him that several of the suspects had been “subject to partial arrest” in 2004.
