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EU: Counter-terrorism: proposals on information sharing and operational cooperation
25 April 2016
"There are still major gaps in intelligence sharing regarding DAESH fighters that have returned to Europe in the wake of the Brussels and Paris attacks, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator warned Thursday.
The report, presented by Gilles de Kerchove at an interior ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, comes after repeated calls by European Union leaders for greater cooperation in dealing with extremists that attempt to return from Syria and Iraq.
"There are still significant gaps in the information being fed to Europol," the report indicated, referring to data on so-called foreign terrorist fighters who travel abroad and are then at risk of returning to their countries of origin to carry out more attacks."
See:
EU warns of gaps in sharing intelligence on DAESH (Daily Sabah, link)
The Counter-Terrorism Coordinator's report:
Systematic feeding and consistent use of European and international Databases - information sharing in the counter-terrorism context (14 April 2016, 7726/16, pdf)
Attempts to improve information- and intelligence-sharing are taking place at the same time as proposals in the Council's internal security committee (COSI) to move towards "a structured approach for operational cooperation on countering terrorist threats". This includes coordination through a "master document":
"It is suggested that the Presidency, in cooperation with EU CTC (in addition to his regular reports to the Council), develops a master document. Such table of CT actions would cover the most relevant actions that have been agreed by the Council, either politically (in the form of for instance Council Conclusions) or legally (binding EU instruments). If applicable, for each action, it would indicate the responsible Working Party and show the state of progress. During each Presidency, the General Council Secretariat and EU CTC would provide an update of such table to delegations. A similar exercise is already being undertaken with regard to the implementation of the Internal Security Strategy."
And:
"Secondly, Member States are invited to indicate whether they can agree to request Europol and EU Intelligence and Analysis Centre to provide a joint threat assessment, as well as allow interested Member States and Eurojust and Frontex to contribute to such a threat assessment, in full respect of Member States' sole responsibility for national security. Obviously such threat assessment would need to be drawn up by Europol/INTCEN following a clear tasking by those Member States that wish to deepen their cooperation in this manner."
See: NOTE from: Presidency to: JHA Counsellors/COSI Support Group:
Development of a structured approach for operational cooperation on countering terrorist threats (13 April 2016, 7796/16, pdf)