London, 16 August (AKI) – Explosives remain an area of huge vulnerability in air safety, and European Union countries must cooperate more closely to roll out concrete measures to counter this “persistent and very real” threat, Britain’s interior minister, John Reid said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the end of air terror talks in the capital London convened in the wake of last week’s foiled plot blow up passenger planes between Britain and the United States.
The presence of five other interior ministers and top EU officials symbolised Europe’s determination to stand united and defend their values in the face of “a very persistent and very real threat across Europe…not unique to the UK,” by world-wide terrorists “who are unconstrained in their evil intentions,” Reid stated.
Reid said they had discussed practical measures in four areas: tackling liquid explosives (which the foiled bomb plotters had planned to use to bring down up to 10 transatlantic passenger jets); coordination of transport security; exchange of intelligence; and the nature of Islam in Europe.
He said that civil liberties will have to be re-assessed and individual rights will have to be balanced with collective security in the face the terrorism threat and warned: “It will not be resolved by any quick fix.”
EU justice and security commissioner, Franco Frattini, said he would be presenting practical proposals on the detection of liquid explosives – which he termed “an area of particular vulnerability” – and detonators at a forthcoming meeting of EU interior ministers in Finland.
One idea mooted at Monday’s meeting was the creation of an explosives policy working group – suggested by Frances’s interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy – along the lines of the aready existing EU expert group on illegal immigration that can be activated in any emergency, Frattini said.
In the area of transport security, Frattini said the interior ministers had agreed to look at exchanging passenger data for flights within the EU – including biometric information – “well in advance,” to make controls of passengers on board easier and faster.
On relations with the Muslim community, Frattini stressed the need to prevent and fight radicalisation. One proposal under discussion was EU-level training of imams to create a European Islam, he said. “We need to show Muslims we respect their religion but that they must respect national laws, especially the right to life,” Frattini underlined.
“It is about fundamentally two sets of values: those of the EU and its citizens irrespective of bakcground, race and ethnicity.. human rights and democratic freedom for all; and those that seek to subvert those values,” said Reid. “We must and will not allow terrorists to undermine the values that bond our society and make it strong,” he added.
Both Sarkozy and Germany’s interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble – with whom Reid held trilateral talks – stressed their solidarity with the UK after last week’s arrests. “More than ever, the key word in the efforts of counter terrorism is co-ordination between our countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world,” said Sarkozy.
All European countries “can benefit from the experiences in the UK in order to inform our own measures in the fight against terrorism,” said Schaeuble.
Finland’s interior minister, Kari Rajamaki vowed the Finnish presidency will “do its utomost” to implement the EU counter-terrorism action plan agreed last year under the British EU presidency and said its first duty is to “protect citizens.” The EU must “act now” and quickly to monitor use of the internet and sales of bomb making materials and arms, he said.
European Union interior ministers from Britain, France, Germany and Finland, EU justice and security commissioner Franco Frattini, and EU counter-terrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, as well as the interior ministers of forthcoming EU presidency holders Portugal and Slovenia attended Monday’s meeting.
The talks follow an alleged plot to bring down up to 10 passenger planes bound for the United States from Britain over which police have detained 24 suspects, all British-born Muslims, many of Pakistani origins.
The 7 July, 2005 bombing of London’s tranport system that killed 56 and injured 1,000 people were carried out by three young Pakistani-descended British men and one Jamaican-born Muslim convert.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.330962388&par=0
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