Combating terrorism in the European Union

The committee on civil liberties adopted the draft resolution on combating terrorism in the EU. The rapporteur, Mrs Reding (PPE, L), called for a complete and coherent catalogue of measures, which would go beyond mere selective proposals and would put greater emphasis on preventing acts of terrorism, together with improved intelligence and the strengthening of repressive measures. Drawing inspiration from a proposal put by the Committee on International Law for a definition of the concept of terrorism, which would be valid throughout the EU, to be included in Recital A, the wording which was adopted presents in detail the following areas: prevention, investigation, suppression and police and judicial cooperation. While calling on each Member State to promote democratic dialogue between conflicting parties in its territory and to implement a strategy for reconciliation, the Committee declared itself against the adoption of exceptional laws and procedures which might give greater importance to acts of terrorism and also protested against the unacceptable glamorization by the media of terrorist acts. The Council was called upon to take a decision as a matter of urgency which would enable Europol to assume powers in the fight against terrorism and to strive for the harmonisation, both at European level and from a longer-term perspective, of the criminal justice system which applies to serious crossborder crime, while for their part Member States were urged to cooperate actively within the framework of the new European Convention on extradition. �