EU to appoint anti-terror boss

Eight days after Madrid train bombings killed more than 200 people, EU governments agreed in principle today to name an official to co-ordinate anti-terrorism activities across the European Union.

“This proposal seems have found a consensus,” Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx said as interior and justice ministers, meeting in Brussels, debated ways to step up cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

EU government leaders will make the final decision when they meet next week.

The justice and interior ministers debated Europe’s ability to prevent the sort of carnage caused by the Madrid train blasts.

The horrific loss of life has encouraged European governments to improve cooperation on developing and sharing intelligence data on terrorist groups.

The European Commission has chided European governments for dragging their heels in enacting a range of anti-terrorist measures that they approved after the September 11 attacks.

“We want action on those measures which have already been agreed upon,” UK Home Secretary David Blunkett said.

“What I’m interested in is hard, practical action, like sharing of communications data which roots back the activities of terrorists, which gets into the use of mobile phones, and the internet.”

Austria and Belgium said they want a European central intelligence agency which would analyse and act on information collected by national intelligence services.

“To have a structured exchange and an analysis of intelligence collected by the national services would already be a great step forward in the fight against terrorism,” Onkelinx said.

However, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggested the secret services of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain – the EU’s five biggest members – should assume the leading role.

He said officials from these services will debate the Spanish probe into the March 11 train bombings at a meeting in Madrid on Monday. They will meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss operational details of cross-border anti-terrorism cooperation, Sarkozy said.

The interior and justice ministers stood in silence for a minute in memory of victims of the Madrid attacks.

Juergen Storbeck, head of Europol, the EU police agency, told the ministers he saw “no immediate threat” of new terrorist attacks but stressed the “need to reinforce intelligence cooperation” for this summer’s European football championships in Portugal and the summer Olympics in Athens.

“What is important for Spain is to have a better exchange of information,” said Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes. He urged his colleagues to issue passports with fingerprints and to step up security on planes and trains.

The main task of an EU “anti-terror tsar” would be to improve co-ordination in anti-terrorist efforts from foreign policy to money laundering and to cross-border police cooperation.

The official would report to Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy and security chief.

As a first step, the EU planned to beef up an existing intelligence threat assessment cell at the EU headquarters.

German Interior Minister Otto Schilly said what the EU needed was an “information clearinghouse … so we get a clear picture of the potential threat that we face at the earliest possible stage.”

Europe’s response to terrorism also figures on the agenda of a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.

Later in the week, the EU leaders are expected to issue a declaration of solidarity with Spain.

“One of the member states of the Union is the victim of an appalling terrorist outrage,” says the draft text of that declaration that has been prepared by the EC.

“It is the duty of the Union, its institutions and all its member states to act quickly and in a spirit of solidarity to provide all possible support and assistance to Spain.”