EU to unveil anti-terror laws

Plans to tighten counter-terrorism laws across Europe will be unveiled by the European Commission today.

The long-planned package of measures has been brought forward in the wake of the terrorist attacks in America and is designed to block glaring loopholes in current anti-terrorist coordination and cooperation across Europe.

The majority of EU member states currently have no specific legislation on terrorism at all.

Others have no definition of terrorism in their domestic laws, while there are widely differing national search and investigation provisions for dealing with suspected terrorists.

The gaps were identified by EU leaders at a summit two years ago, and it has taken until now to draw up proposals to streamline procedures across the EU and develop a new unity in tackling terrorism.

Without last week’s attacks, the Commission’s proposals were not due to be finalised for many more weeks.

But immediately after the atrocities in New York and Washington, Commission President Romano Prodi ordered swift completion of the plans, which include a fast-track extradition procedure for terrorists, an EU-wide arrest warrant, the freezing of the assets of known terrorists, and minimum EU-level penalties for terrorist atrocities.

After formal approval by the Commission today, the measures will be presented to EU justice and home affairs ministers including David Blunkett, who met in emergency session in Brussels tomorrow.

The ministers, who normally meet only about four times a year, will meet again in a week’s time to review progress - a sign of the mounting concern over establishing coordinated anti-terrorist security systems.

Only a fortnight ago a European Parliament report warned that, with Europe facing a ‘‘profound change’’ in the nature of terrorism, traditional forms of judicial and police cooperation to combat it were inadequate.

It went on: ‘‘This new form of terrorism stems from the activities of networks operating at international level, which are based in several countries and exploit legal loopholes arising from the geographical limits of investigations.

‘‘What makes modern-day terrorism particularly dangerous is that, unlike terrorist acts in the past, the actual or potential impact of armed attacks is increasingly devastating and lethal’’.

The report was referring to the latest technological developments in the arms and explosive sector, and not the use of civilian airliners as guided missiles as would occur just days after the report was adopted.

Author Graham Watson, a Liberal Democrat MEP, voiced regret at the EU’s ‘‘slowness in responding to the terrorist threat and the fact that there is as yet no coherent and legally-binding set of coordinated measures adopted by common accord’’.

Now the Commission’s counter-terrorism package will put pressure on EU governments to adopt the contents swiftly.

Mr Watson, chairman of the European Parliaments Committee on Justice and Home Affairs, said: ‘‘There can no longer be any excuse in a democracy for jealously guarding national sovereignty and stalling effective common action by police and judicial authorities.

‘‘National security agencies and police forces must share intelligence on international criminals with their counterparts in other countries.’’

He criticised current European extradition procedures as ‘‘slow and cumbersome’’, and called for their replacement by an international search-and-arrest warrant.

‘‘Democracies cannot always prevent such outrages but they can do much, much more to defend themselves and each other. he added.

The symbolism of approving the Commission’s measures will have more short-term impact than any practical changes in EU-level anti-terrorism law.

And, with Washington still considering its military options as the world waits, the solidarity being displayed by Europe in seeking judicial responses to terrorism is seen in Brussels as crucial.