Thursday

28th Mar 2024

MEPs clash with EU officials over foreign fighters

  • Authorities fear returning foreign fighters may launch attacks in the EU (Photo: Cocoabiscuit)

A handful of MEPs are accusing EU officials of scare-mongering the threat of foreign-fighters to push through security policies and agreements on passenger name records (PNR).

The European Commission’s director for internal security told MEPs in the civil liberties committee on Wednesday (5 November) that the “fatal attack at the Belgian Jewish museum in May of this year” shows the EU needs to finalise a new PNR agreement with Canada.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The lead negotiator on the file Dutch liberal Sophie In’t Veld said the reference was disingenuous because the EU has been exchanging PNR data with Canada for the past five years already.

“Suggesting that with this agreement you can use PNR to identify foreign fighters and that we will all be safe, you even made the connection with the attacks in Brussels, which underlines that your justification is false,” she said.

The European commission and member states want the agreement finalised to create a broad legal basis but need the European Parliament to sign it off first.

Some of the articles in the draft agreement have riled the MEPs, including a disclosure clause that allows Canada to share the data to other countries on a case-by-case basis.

“So, we don’t need an agreement anymore with other third states like Russia, like China, or whomever, Canada can give it to them,” pointed out German Green MEP Jan Philip Albrecht.

The foreign fighter threat issue was brought up a second time in a separate debate at the committee with other top EU officials also on Wednesday.

The officials cited two differed on the number of foreign fighters.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator, said there were more than 3,000. Michele Coninsx, president of the EU's joint judicial authority Eurojust, said there were 2,000. Rob Wainwright, director of the EU’s police agency Europol, was more vague and said it was in the low thousands.

All agreed that PNR in general is needed to help combat the growing threat.

De Kerchove then said they are able to detect a large percentage of foreign fighters already in Iraq and Syria by just looking at Facebook.

“Many of these fighters are pretty narcissistic and they like to portrait themselves and put their pictures on the internet with a Kalashnikov,” said De Kerchove.

For the most part, De Kerchove said there was no need to propose new legislation but instead optimise things like the Schengen Information System.

Policy ideas already being explored to prevent people from joining the Jihadist groups include systematic electronic checks of documents - instead of the more standard visual checks - of EU citizens leaving and entering the passport-free Schengen zone.

Wainwright noted the number of annual terrorist attacks in Europe have actually decreased in the past year.

“Within that overall downward trend, it is important to acknowledge that the downward trend is mainly attributable to separatist terrorism becoming a smaller problem in the EU,” he said.

At the same time, Wainwright said the threat with “what we call religiously inspired terrorism” like the ISIL is increasing and then also referenced the Jewish attack in Brussels.

“This makes the terrorist threat we face right now probably the greatest and probably the most serious we have in the past ten years,” he said.

Last year, EU justice and home affairs ministers agreed to adopt a strategy to address the problem of foreign fighters.

This includes trying to profile those going to Syria and Iraq, how to prevent them from leaving in the first place, how to detect suspicious travel, and how to deal with retournees.

Data retention issue stymies EU air passenger bill

Attempts to finalise the EU-wide passenger name records bill by the end of year seems unlikely, given top MEPs' divided views on its conformity with a recent Luxembourg verdict.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us