PARIS – After the recent terror attacks in France and Austria, European leaders held a summit Tuesday in France to coordinate the response against terrorism, and they are pushing for a “common coordinated and rapid” European response to counterterror attacks.

The question of how to respond to Islamist attacks like the recent ones in Nice and Vienna brought together Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the Elysee Palace in Paris where they were joined by videoconference with the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, and top EU officials.

President Macron urged a “common coordinated and rapid” European response to counterterror attacks.

Macron detailed the need to develop common databases between EU states, improve cooperation between law enforcement, share intel and enact tougher legislation on the continent. Any threat at EU external borders or inside even one member state is a threat to the entire EU, said the French president.

European leaders also stressed the need for what they said should be a “determined fight against terrorist propaganda and hate speech on the internet.” Macron mentioned Netherlands and Austria as good examples of how this fight should be carried out.

He said the Internet is a space of freedom, and social networks are, too, but this freedom exists only if there is security and if it does not serve as a refuge for those who flout European values or seek to indoctrinate with deadly ideologies. Macron said terrorist propaganda must be removed within an hour once it is flagged.

To counter jihadist terrorism, EU leaders also are calling for measures to ensure that the teachings of imams on the continent do not include hate speech.

Charles Michel is the president of the European Council.

Michel said religious freedom is key in Europe, but there also is a need to guarantee that imams preach the right values of tolerance and peace.

This meeting took place on the eve of the anniversary of the November 2015 attacks that killed more than 100 people in Paris.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/europe/eu-leaders-urge-rapid-and-coordinated-response-terror-attacks

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French President Emmanuel Macron and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz met in Paris after both of their countries have lost lives to Islamic extremist attackers in recent weeks.

The two leaders then held a video conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel to discuss collective anti-terrorism strategy.

Von der Leyen stressed on the importance of prevention, including a better integration of people and on the protection of external borders.

Michel mentioned the need to properly train imams and protecting the freedom of conscience and religion.

The meeting comes a week after a man who officials said had tried to join the Islamic State group shot four people to death in Vienna.

The shooting has strengthened calls in Austria for a crackdown on Islamic extremism.

In France last month, an Islamic extremist killed three people in a church in the French city of Nice, and another extremist beheaded a teacher near Paris because he had shown his students cartoons of Islam’s prophet for a discussion about freedom of expression.

As a result of the attacks, Macron last week proposed tighter controls on the EU’s external borders, more coordinated policing inside the bloc’s border-free zone, and changes to EU migration policy.

“Every security flaw, concerning the external border of the EU or within any country is a security risk for every member state and our intelligence systems too. The use of legal tools is essential also and we will discuss this in December,” the French premier said.

While Macron wants to focus his strategy on Schengen reform, Michel wants to put a common EU strategy on the table, to crack down on foreign funding for religious organizations, and to also help imams promote Islam in a way that respects EU ideals.

“How can we enhance the training of imams in Europe? How can we be sure that the liberty of consciousness and religious freedom, which are a crucial issue in Europe, are being protected? What can we do to guarantee these values without any compromise?” Michel said.

But he is also calling for the creation of a European institute to train imams to fight extremist ideology, which Salah Echallaoui, vice president of the Muslim Executive of Belgium, says is not enough.

“If we limit the fight against radicalism only to the training of imams, and therefore just the religious aspect, I think we will begin to lose the fight against radicalism,” he said.

“All the experts say that radicalism has many different roots and causes and in order to fight all of this, we must work within all these areas.

“We are ready to work on the religious aspect because it is our responsibility, but it is not enough.”

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The attacks have refocused the EU’s attention on religious extremism, which fell off the top of the political agenda after the 2017 defeat of Islamic State forces in the Middle East.

Under pressure to beef up security and reassure voters following the latest attacks, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say Europe’s troubled Schengen zone of control-free travel over open borders urgently needs fixing.

The attacks in Nice and Vienna involved assailants who moved freely between Schengen countries.

• Related: France to beef up border patrols: Macron

After discussions with Ms. Merkel, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and other top officials in Brussels, Mr. Macron called for tighter security to prevent assailants crossing European borders unchecked.

“The threat of terrorism weighs on all of Europe; we must respond,” Mr. Macron said on Tuesday.

“To reform Schengen is to allow free movement in security.”

Ms. Merkel sided with Mr. Macron in demanding stricter controls along the external frontier of the Schengen area, which brings together 26 countries, including most of the EU, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

“It is vitally necessary to know who comes in and who leaves the Schengen area,” Ms. Merkel said.

National security concerns, chaotic migration into the EU from the Middle East and Africa, and most recently the coronavirus pandemic have led to the re-emergence of border controls in the Schengen zone – eroding what has been hailed a milestone achievement in Europe’s post-World War II integration.

Mr. Kurz also called for a more coordinated plan for dealing with foreign militants while Mr. Rutte emphasized stopping “undesirable” foreign financing as a further avenue to tackle extremism.

Other ideas include stricter demands on online platforms to combat extremism, setting up a special European institute to train Muslim imams, and effectively deporting people with no claim to asylum in Europe as well as criminals and suspected extremists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sided with the French President’s call for urgent border reform. Photo: Getty

EU justice and interior ministers meet on Friday – the fifth anniversary of coordinated attacks in Paris in which Islamist gunmen killed more than 130 people – to discuss a joint security response to the latest incidents.

Improving the sharing of security data and beefing up the bloc’s border force Frontex are also on the EU’s to-do list, according to their draft decision.

Crucially for Mr. Macron, the ministerial decision includes language reinforcing EU countries’ rights to temporarily suspend free movement across Schengen borders during security alerts.

France has had such curbs on free movement in place since 2015.

Many of the proposals now on the table have proven difficult to agree upon, let alone implement, suggesting the 27 national EU leaders will have a hard nut to crack when they meet to decide concrete steps in December.

-AAP

Source: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/europe-news/2020/11/11/schengen-border-security-reform/

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