By Daisy Ayliffe - 1st December 2005
Not all EU countries are doing enough to fight terrorism, France warned on Thursday.
As European justice ministers met to review progress on an action plan to combat terrorism, France urged governments to take greater responsibility.
“We see some member states are still reserved about taking action,” a French government spokesman warned.
“France was one of the first to take its responsibility but not all member states have followed.”
Member states are primarily responsible for the fight against terrorism and the EU has stressed the importance of robust national provisions.
But this year’s review of the anti terrorism scheme exposes weaknesses and warns member states that they are not all progressing fast enough.
“A number of instruments which have been adopted have still to be implemented by all member states, in some cases preventing their entry into force in the union,” the report finds.
Justice ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday were also warned that “Europe remains vulnerable” and that the flow of intelligence information is inadequate.
“The flow of information to EUROPOL and EUROJUST, while improving,
is still limited,” it says.
The summary of progress since summer 2005 welcomes improved security at airports and greater use of the Europe wide arrest warrant.
But some member states believe Europe needs greater co-operation on data retention.
“We need to be able to benefit from data retention at an EU level,” a French government spokesman stressed.
“We saw how effective London was thanks to its measures on data retention.”
The EU’s counter-terrorism strategy was adopted in 2004 and centered around four pillars, “prevent, protect, pursue, and respond.”
It was set up to, “work at national, European and international levels to reduce the threat from terrorism and our vulnerability to attack.”
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