EU takes action against ISIS – media reports

The European fight against the Islamic State continues to draw the headlines today. In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, all EU member states are trying to find solutions to reinforce the European security services. Nine days after the Paris attacks, France is still in shock, while Mali has also been attacked and Brussels is in high alert.

Most media report that since Saturday, Belgium has placed Brussels at the highest terror alert level as the terrorist threat has increased in the city since the Paris attacks. Belgium has extended its state of emergency this Monday; schools and subways will remain closed, and Belgian Government requested the citizens to avoid large gathering and try to remain indoors as much as possible until the situation improves. Several Belgian media report that the police had arrested four people on Saturday evening, including one wearing a suicide belt. Nevertheless, in an article published in Le Soir, Béatrice Delvaux writes that despite the French and Belgian major police action, Salah Abdelslam remains at large, which means it is not over yet. “If the police work seems considerable, there are more questions than answers,” she notes.

Meanwhile, Corriere della Sera reports that top officials of the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament announced that EU secondary activities will be cancelled due to the terror alert over possible imminent terror attacks in Brussels. Indeed, EU buildings, and even trains transporting MEPs and European Parliament staff from Brussels to Strasbourg, could be targeted by Jihadists. Even Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, explained that Belgium was not “the weak link, but one of the weak links” of European intelligence, French media report.

European media also report on the EU’s new strategy to address the threat and Friday’s emergency summit in Brussels. European countries agreed on Friday to new steps aimed at securing Europe’s frontiers, as further evidence emerged that some terrorists from the commando who attacked Paris last week were using the EU’s porous borders to slip between the continent and the Middle East. Indeed, prosecutors on Friday said they had confirmed that another of the suicide bombers who died in last week’s attack on the Stade de France had travelled through Greece.

The European Commission announced on Friday that it will submit before the end of the year a text to reform the Schengen Borders Code. In the post-meeting statement, the EU-28 member states promised, among other things, that EU citizens will also be systemically checked on external borders, Postimees writes. Writing in the WSJE, Holman Jenkins comments that in the wake of the Paris attacks, the EU is “rapidly stumbling toward a realisation that its Schengen area…is unsustainable.” The Observer‘s Andrew Rawnsley maintains that “Schengen…is surely history.” In an op-ed published in the Financial Times, Wolfgang Munchau argues that there are two potential fixes in response to Paris: either repair Schengen or abandon it. He believes the latter will apply.

Some European leaders also advocate for a repaired Schengen system. “Schengen is not dead,” as Wolfgang Brandstetter, Austrian Minister of Justice, put it, quoted by French media. “A flawless external border protection will preserve free movement within the Schengen area,” commented German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière. Meanwhile, in an article in yesterday’s Malta Independent on Sunday, EC President Jean-Claude Juncker criticised the “cynics” who had linked the refugee crisis with the Paris attacks: “I cannot bear and will not accept an amalgamation of the topics of refugees and terrorism in the wake of the atrocious attacks in Paris…We will only save Schengen by applying Schengen. I could not bear that my generation be the one to put up walls again in Europe – we have only just taken them down.”

EU Interior and Justice Ministers on Friday also decided to improve intelligence sharing between EU member states. Most EU media report that European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos proposed on Friday the establishment of a European Intelligence Service, upon his arrival to the extraordinary EU Interior Ministers meeting in Brussels. As he stated, after the European Counter Terrorism Centre in Europol, formed after the attack at Charlie Hebdo, “now it is the right time to take a step further and to lay the foundations for the creation of a European Intelligence Agency” and called all the EU member states to implement the European Agenda for Safety.

Nevertheless, some leader writers and European leaders maintain that this measure will not be sufficient to address the threat. In an interview with Il Mattino, Gianni Pittella, the Italian leader of Socialist MEPs in the European Parliament, says that the EU must fight terrorism through the cooperation of national intelligence services, and reinforcing Europol by creating a European anti-terrorism centre. European security forces are suffering from the lack of national and European Passenger Name Records (PNR), although EU Home Affairs ministers vowed on Friday to have the European PNR adopted by the European Parliament by the end of the year, Le Figaro and Les Echos report.

In an interview with Respekt weekly, Belgian PM and Chairman of the EP’s ALDE Group Guy Verhofstadt suggests that the EU should swiftly introduce a common secret service. On the contrary, Stefano Dambruoso, a former magistrate expert in international terrorism stressed in Il Messaggero, that terrorists who have arrived to Europe mixed with migrants are a very small minority, and that intelligence and data exchange are working.

Moreover, during Friday’s emergency summit, EC President Jean-Claude Juncker also announced that the EU would give more budget leeway to states facing extra security costs, according to Corriere della Sera. Commissioner Jourova stressed the importance of preventing radicalisation of people in European prisons and terrorism funding, STA adds.

Handelsblatt‘s correspondent in Brussels Thomas Ludwig comments on the security measures the authorities in Brussels have taken over the weekend, describing these as appropriate measures to reduce risks instead of any sign of giving in to fear. He notes that European leaders must do more to make the population feel safe. “Our country has been heard,” French Home Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after Friday’s emergency Home Affairs Council in Brussels, La Croix reports. Imerisia notes that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker characterised Islamic State as the number one danger for Europe.