Amnesty International warns over draconian anti-terror laws in Europe
Justice ministers, including Frances Fitzgerald, will meet today in Brussels and are expected to agree a raft of security measures following the revelation that at least 2,000 European citizens have fought with Islamic State in Syria or Iraq.
Belgium is considering tagging all terror suspects including people who have been in Syria and may have become radicalised among a host of other harsh new measures amid accusations that the country’s lack of security led to the Paris attacks.
France extended its state of emergency to three months, allowing security forces to arrest, detain, and question suspects without warrants and for longer periods of time, and giving them additional powers.
Amnesty’s Europe director, John Dalhuisen, said the protection of the population from further imminent attack should be the number one priority.
“But the emergency powers currently being rushed through parliament provide for a sweeping extension of executive powers at the expense of essential human rights safeguards.
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"They must be used only when strictly necessary and should not become a permanent addition to France’s anti-terror arsenal.”
EU ministers are expected to agree that all EU citizens should be checked against the criminal and terror databases when entering the travel-free zone.
At the moment their passports are just checked to verify they are not stolen and some may be checked against the wanted person list.
A plan to have data of all passengers on flights into and within the EU checked in advance of flights, similar to the system operated between the EU and the US, is stuck in talks with the European Parliament.
The ministers will push for agreement in the next few weeks. A French request to extend this to trains is unlikely to happen.
Steps are also being taken at other levels such as with national security and intelligence services.
The EU has no role in these areas but in a highly unusual move the intelligence services of all 28 member sates have been meeting over the past few days to discuss how to share intelligence.
Traditionally many member states do not trust one another with their intelligence and so do not share it for fear it will be leaked to the wrong sources.
Ministers will discuss this, but are unlikely to agree giving the Union a role.
Databases with police records, the ECRIS system, currently holds information on EU nations and all national police have access.
Ministers will consider extending this to include the records of third country nationals also.
A new European Counter-terrorism centre within Europol is to be set up shortly, interlinking all information and databases and giving all police and border guards access through the SIS system, which Ireland still does not have.
Europol is the body that coordinates member states police forces.
There is a special database, Focal Point Travellers, for listing foreign fighters which is shared between the EU and the US and for which Europol is also responsible.
New controls on bank accounts, anonymous online payments, and using prepaid cards to prevent money laundering to fund terror activities are also on the agenda and while it may consider including the virtual currency, Bitcoin, this may not happen just yet according to EU sources.
Increased gun control plans are also expected to be agreed.
However despite all these new security measures the head of Europol, Rob Wainwright, told the European Parliament that they will not guarantee absolute safety.
“It is reasonable to assume that further attacks are likely,” he told the MEPs.
He also said that the number of foreign fighters had doubled in the past year and that the while there were just 2,000 confirmed, the real figure was likely to be around 5,000.
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