European and American Interior Ministers are to hold an emergency meeting on couter-terrorism measures, on Sunday in Paris, in the wake of this week’s Islamist attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo Islamist attack.
Two days after the attack on the satirical paper that left 12 dead and several more badly injured, the debate on the European coordination of counter-terrorism is being pushed up the agenda.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that he had invited his American and European counterparts to Paris for this emergency summit.
"I have taken the initiative of inviting to Paris on Sunday my colleagues from those European countries most affected by terrorism, the European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, as well as my American colleagues Erik Holder, the Attorney General and Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security," the minister told the press.
Bernard Cazeneuve specified two objectives for the summit, saying "the aim is both for them to reiterate their solidarity with France and their condemnation of terrorism, and also to exchange their views with us on the common threat posed by terrorists, which can only be resolved by joint action within the European Union".
After a meeting with the Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, Council President Donald Tusk said, "having spoken to President Hollande yesterday evening, I intend to use the meeting of Heads of State and Government on 12 February to discuss more broadly the response the EU can bring" to the challenges of terrorism.
Latvia currently chairs the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.
The attack on the satirical paper, whose caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed had for years made it the subject of threats from jihadist groups, met with unanimous condemnation from Europe's political leaders.
The attack on the Brussels Jewish museum in June 2014, and the arrest of its suspected perpetrator, Mehdi Nemmouche, a French citizen who had previously fought in Syria, placed the problem of European Islamist jihadists under the spotlight.
Last January the Commission estimated that 1,200 Europeans had joined the groups fighting mainly in Syria, but today’s estimates vary between 3,000 and 5,000.
The attack on Charlie Hebdo has made the issue a priority for the European Institutions.
The European Parliament will hold an emergency debate on the fight against terrorism next Monday during its monthly plenary session in Strasbourg.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the fight against terrorism would be added to the agenda of the next meeting of Foreign Ministers in Brussels on 19 January, and Jean-Claude Juncker, who was in Riga for the launch of the Latvian EU Presidency, announced his intention to draw up a European counter-terrorism plan.
Among the issues raised by the Commission President were the need to evaluate and improve cooperation between member states and the possibility of looking for ways to improve the Schengen Treaty.
This week's events may speed up the implementation of the European passenger name record system (PNR), a single register of information for all air passengers entering or leaving the EU.
The directive would allow flight companies to share information on passengers and personnel on flights to and from the EU with the police services, but has been blocked by MEPs in an attempt to protect civil liberties. But political support for the scheme is growing, as it could provide the security services with a valuable tool for tracking the movements of foreign fighters.
“Next week in Strasbourg, I will appeal to the European Parliament to speed up work on the EU Passenger Name Record system, which can help in detecting the travel of dangerous people. This can be our joint initiative," Donald Tusk said.