Tightening checks on all travellers, including European citizens, at the external borders of the EU, finalizing before the end of the year of a database for air travelers in, out of and within Europe and better intelligence sharing among Europe’s security services are among the main measures adopted Friday in Brussels by the 28 EU Interior and Justice Ministers who met in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks one week ago.

France has called for a fundamental revision of the Schengen deal to allow ‘’systematic’’ checks of EU citizens at borders.

Most EU citizens enjoy passport-free travel throughout the Schengen zone of 22 EU countries, plus non-EU Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

EU officials said travellers will now not only have their passports examined but have their personal information checked with databases.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin suspected of being the mastermin of the Paris attacks claimed by the Islamic State terror organisation that that left 129 people and more than 350 wounded, died in a police assault on an apartment in Saint-Denis, northern Paris.

The man was thought to have been in Syria and his presence in France has raised questions about Europe's sharing of information. An international arrest warrant did not stop him re-entering France undetected to take part in Friday's attacks.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Paris had received no warning from other EU members that Abaaoud was in the EU and that it was "urgent that Europe wakes up, organises itself and defends itself against the terrorist threat".

European Union Commissioner in charge of Home Affairs and Migrants, Dimitris Avramaoproulis, declared that "it is time to create the basis for an EU intelligence agency.