EU “anti-terror tsar” appointed
A Dutch politician has been appointed Europe’s “anti-terror tsar.”
Gijs de Vries, a former president of the Liberal Party in the European Parliament, will oversee Europe’s broad counter-terror strategy.
From his Brussels office next Monday, he will collate and disseminate intelligence data received from Europe’s Joint Situation Centre, Europol and Eurojust.
His appointment comes in the wake of the Madrid railway bombings, which killed 202 and left over 1,700 innocent people injured.
During his time as Dutch deputy internal minister between 1998-2002 Mr de Vries had the remit on national disaster response.
He was born in New York and holds dual US-Dutch citizenship. The 48-year-old is fluent in English, French, German and Dutch.
The appointment came as European leaders and ministers begin a two-day summit to assess how the EU could best respond to the new terror threat.
Leaders from 25 nations – present and future – are keen to beef up security on boats, trains and border controls in the wake of the al-Qaeda linked terror atrocities in Spain.
Agreement was also reached on implementing extant counter-terrorism measures, such as a pan-European arrest warrant and the freezing of assets of banned groups, as well as, controversially, retaining telecommunications data, including mobile phone records, for an agreed minimum period to allow intelligence agencies to track calls.
