Revised European Union anti-terrorism action plan, work programme

 The committee adopted the own-initiative report by Rosa DÍEZ GONZÁLEZ (PES, ES) on the revised EU anti-terrorism action plan. It formulated a number of recommendations to the Council:

- a special unit should be set up to help the victims of terrorism, under the responsibility of the European Anti-Terrorism Coordinator. This unit would organise a European Forum to give a voice to the victims of terrorism;

- a common and global definition of terrorism should be adopted and consideration should be given to listing terrorist attacks with the crimes that come within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, so these crimes would not be time-barred and would be included among those considered "most serious and inadmissible" under Community and international law;

- the legal conditions should be established to enable a European Public Prosecutor's Office to be set up to investigate, pursue and sentence all perpetrators of serious cross-border crimes, in particular terrorism;

- an annual assessment of the anti-terrorism action plan should be carried out every year and should take account of the "effectiveness and proportionality of the measures adopted, and of any new developments";

- all the Member States should be required to sign and ratify the 12 existing international anti-terrorist conventions and adopt the eight special recommendations by the OECD to combat the financing of terrorism. Moreover, all third countries with which the EU maintains relations should be required to do the same;

- account should be taken of the diverse nature of terrorism and the fact that terrorism is "an emerging and unpredictable phenomenon with its own specific sense of time", in particular terrorism by radical groups that claim to defend Islam. The Union needs to develop a proactive - rather than just reactive - policy to combat it;

- educational programmes delivered through the media should be funded and developed with a view to condemning all forms of violence, especially terrorism, and combating environments which foster and are a breeding-ground for racial, religious or ideological hatred.