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Speech by Gijs De Vries on the 'European strategy in the fight against terrorism and the co-operation with the Unites States'

It is a great pleasure to be with you today. I am honoured to be here at the CSIS, one of the leading think tanks in this city of think tanks. Special thanks go to Simon Serfaty, a man who combines a superb knowledge of transatlantic relations with formidable bridge-building skills.

I am delighted to speak for the enlarged European Union of 25 Member States. The unification of most of Europe, freely and democratically, is a great moment for Europe and America. We have just witnessed one of the greatest regime changes in history, and not a drop of blood was shed.

It is no coincidence that my first trip abroad as the new European Union Co-Ordinator for Counter-Terrorism brings me to DC. America and Europe are natural partners in the fight against terrorism.

There are three things I want to tell you today. First, we are in this together. Second, the EU is fully committed and united in the fight against terrorism. Third, what either of us does alone is important but it will not be enough.

Terrorism has become a global phenomenon. The response has to reflect the dimensions of the threat. Co-operation between Europe and America is crucial to build the necessary partnerships. This is the message I delivered, together with Commissioner Vitorino, to Secretary Tom Ridge, Attorney-General John Ashcroft, Deputy Secretary Armitage and my other US interlocutors this week.

Before getting down to my three messages, let me briefly state a few principles.

Terrorism is an attack against the values of liberty, democracy, tolerance and the rule of law which are cherished by men and women the world over, regardless of nationality or religion. Terrorism denies the very values on which both the US and the EU were founded - the values that are enshrined in your Constitution and in our founding Treaties and that inspired the Universal Declaration of Human rights. This is why there is no cause, no reason that can justify terrorism.

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in Europe, as my Spanish, British, Irish, German and Italian friends know only too well. In Britain, Ireland and Spain alone, more than 5.000 lives have been lost to terrorism over the past thirty years. Our experience has taught us that the only way to defeat terrorism is to confront it.

As an all-out attack on the essence of a free society, terrorism requires an all-out response. This means we have to do everything in our power to stop the terrorists and their supporters and to put them in jail. It also means draining the swamps and transforming any environment that allows terrorists to fester and prosper. Because terrorism is an all-out attack on our system, there is a temptation to believe that just any measures can be used to fight this threat. I would caution against that. In our combating of terrorism we must be careful to preserve and protect the rights and liberties, the principles and values terrorists are seeking to destroy. Otherwise the terrorists would have won. In the long term, victory in this battle will only be won if legitimacy remains firmly on our side.

Let me add a word on the use of force. I hear from time to time that Europeans are from Venus and Americans from Mars. This is a neat image. But like many images, it is too neat to be true. After 9/11, what happened in NATO? All the European members agreed with Secretary General Robertson to invoke Article V, for the first time in the history of the Alliance. No responsible European denied the American right to oust the Taliban who harboured Bin Laden and other terrorists. Not only that, many European countries sent soldiers to Afghanistan. They are still there, serving alongside Americans. The situation with Iraq was different. We all know that. But in their determination to confront terrorism the nations of Europe are united. Last month, for example, when Osama bin Laden offered Europeans peace and a truce if they would withdraw their forces from Muslim counties, the European Union and its member states rejected the offer out of hand.

Let me now tell you why and how we are in this together.

After 9/11, we stood united with our American friends. Our hearts went out to the victims and their families. A native New Yorker myself, I was shocked and dismayed by this murderous assault on my place of birth and its people. Many Europeans died in the attacks. Le Monde wrote:"We are all Europeans".

9/11 changed our outlook and our policies: the fight against terrorism became a top priority. We understand how 9/11 changed your country even more. The US had never been attacked on their homeland. Americans had felt safe at home in a way we never could: all European countries have been invaded in one way or other over the centuries. During the Cold War, we faced the spectre of a third world war on European soil.

The Madrid bombings on March 11 of this year drove home to us what we had known and said for a long time: Europe is both a target and a base for Al Qaeda inspired terrorism. Europe is as vulnerable as the US, if not more so. This is why I am determined to push the European Union's fight against terror even further, and to do so in close co-operation with the US.

The EU and US strategies to combat terrorism have a lot in common. We do not only see the same threat. We both believe that no country can win this fight alone, that international, especially transatlantic co-operation is key in the fight against terror. We agree that a wide range of measures are necessary in this global campaign. Richard Armitage recently named five fronts for the US: diplomatic, military, economic, intelligence, and law enforcement. Our security strategy is similar.

We are in it together, but that does not mean that our response is or has to be exactly alike. Our systems do differ in some respects. You have the death penalty, we don't. You seem to have fewer problems with the integration of minorities than we do. We have a more developed dialogue with some of our Arab neighbours than you do. These are differences we have to live with. But they cannot and will not detract us from the job we have to do together: protect our citizens from the scourge of terrorism.

The EU and the fight against terrorism

Let me turn to what the Union has done and what we still intend to do in the fight against terrorism. After the Madrid bombings, our Heads of State and Government declared that "there will be neither weakness nor compromise of any kind when dealing with terrorists. No country in the world can consider itself immune. Terrorism will only be defeated by solidarity and collective action". Ambassador Cofer Black hit the point when he told the Senate that the people of Europe are united in their abhorrence of terrorism.

Like the US National Security Strategy, the European Security Strategy sees terrorism as a "growing strategic threat to the whole of Europe". For both of us, the most frightening scenario is one in which terrorist groups acquire weapons of mass destruction. We not only say this, we mean this. Already a few days after 9/11, the European Council adopted an ambitious action plan. I will not bore you with the details. Allow me just give you five examples.

• First, we created the European Arrest Warrant. When Swedish prosecutors now issue an arrest warrant, for instance, the police of any EU other country has to arrest the criminal and extradite him or her. No country can refuse to surrender nationals. What used to be politics is now just judicial. Governments are not involved anymore. This makes things much faster. It is much harder now for criminals to escape arrest and to find a safe haven in another EU Member State.
  
  
• Second, we started joint investigation teams. This means that law enforcement authorities of two or more member states can set up teams for criminal investigation. Hence, German and Danish police and prosecutors could work together with their Portuguese colleagues in Lisbon.
  
  
• Third, we created Eurojust, our nascent law enforcement agency. Its job is to improve the co-ordination of member states' law enforcement activities to help with assistance and extradition requests and to support investigations.
  
  
• Fourth, we adopted legislation on terrorist financing. In line with UNSCR 1373, we establish lists of persons, groups and other entities involved in terrorist activities and freeze theirs assets. The EU has also beefed up its laws against money laundering.
  
  
• Fifth, our police agency Europol was given a new role in the fight against terrorism. It is collecting, sharing and analysing information about international terrorism and can participate in the joint investigative teams. It also assesses EU Member States' performance in fighting terrorism and other forms of serious international crime.

Now those things might look simple but we talk about a Union of 25 Member States. We are not the United States of Europe. Though Member States do voluntarily pool much of their sovereignty, they do not surrender all sovereignty to the Union. We do not have an EU police force, or an EU army. Nevertheless, what has been achieved over the last two years is significant, and it is making co-operation with our transatlantic partners easier and more effective.

The European Union has become an area without internal borders. That obliges Member States to work together. We can't have a situation where criminals and terrorists move and operate freely while police, intelligence and law enforcement people remain confined to their national areas. That is why we created Eurojust or Europol, and indeed my own job. That is why Brussels plays a growing role in the area of justice and home affairs.

Warren Bennis from the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University, said once that defining moments, crucibles as he calls them, are at the very heart of becoming a leader. Leaders have "adaptive capacity, an almost magical ability to transcend adversity. They emerge from their transforming experiences stronger than before". Likewise, the EU, as an institution, grows and learns when faced with a crisis. The European Security Strategy proposed by Javier Solana was a direct result of the disagreements over Iraq. The Madrid bombings were immediately followed by a strong reaction at the 25 March European Council.

We looked at what we had done in the fight against terrorism so far. We knew we had to do more and better. The European Council adopted a Declaration on combating terrorism that Robin Niblett from CSIS called an "important milestone in European commitment to co-ordinating their anti-terrorism initiatives". Europe's Heads of State and Government decided Europe needed to move beyond the measures taken after 9/11.

Action was needed on three accounts. First, implementation. It is relatively easy to decide things on paper. It is much more difficult to get things working on the ground. To put it in baseball terms: As for determination and decisions we have already hit our home run. But for implementation, we are only on second base so far. One of the reasons why my job was created was for me to make sure we would score on that, too. Second we have to be more coherent. We must ensure that our intelligence and security services, our police forces and our judicial authorities work closely together. Third, we must improve our capacity to share and analyse information. At the June European Summit, together with Secretary General/High Representative Solana, I will make specific proposals to reinforce the EU's intelligence capability.

Member States also adopted a solidarity clause. They shall help each other to prevent and protect against terrorist attacks and to assist each other in case an attack happens. This help can be military as well as non-military.

International and EU-US co-operation

What Europe is doing and what the US is doing is important, but not enough. Terrorism is international. Our response has to be international too. It must build on and strengthen the work of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other multilateral organisations. It has to secure the support of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In developing this global strategy, we need to further enhance our transatlantic partnership. As we said in our Security Strategy: "the transatlantic relationship is irreplaceable. Acting together, the European Union and the US can be a formidable force for good in the world".

We continued to work well together on terrorism during last year's disagreement over Iraq. This shows how strong and stable our relationship is.

Let me just point to two or three important developments in the EU-US relationship. Europol concluded two agreements with the US over the last two years. They will allow for the sharing of intelligence and personal data. We are working closely with Interpol to keep track of lost and stolen passports. The EU and the US also concluded an Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement last year. Once they enter into force, requests will be handled much faster. US and European agencies will be in direct contact. Extradition will be possible for many more offences. US authorities will have access to bank accounts throughout EU and vice versa for the investigation of serious crimes. Joint EU-US Investigative Teams are possible. If someone had told me three years ago that we would have such an agreement with the US one day I would have considered him to be mildly crazy. I have urged the member states that have not yet done so to conclude the necessary bilateral arrangements with the US quickly, so that the agreements can enter into force.

A few days ago, we had our first meeting of the new Policy Dialogue on Border and Transport Security. We discussed issues like sky marshals and biometrics . This is a great step into the right direction. It brings all the relevant internal actors into the dialogue. In the past, we sometimes learnt in the media about US homeland security decisions. Many of the measures taken to protect the US affect us in many ways, too. Early warning and timely dialogue are important to avoid regulatory discrepancies that may impede our bilateral trade and investment - the world's most prominent economic relationship.

All this is splendid. What could we do more? First, we should co-ordinate our external assistance. Both of us spend a lot of time to help third countries in their fight against terrorism, especially to implement the UN Conventions. It would be good to have joint or complementary efforts. We must work together to relieve the endemic poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and human misery that foster the resentment in which the support for terrorism can grow. We must continue to support Afghanistan's road to stability and prosperity. Having defeated the Taliban and their allies we must also help to prevent their return. We must continue our efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.

Second, we have work on terrorist financing. A lot has been done to implement the Security Council Resolutions. But we know we have to do better. To freeze assets and hinder travel is difficult under the rule of law. We need more information that can be used in courts. While preserving the rule of law, what can we do to speed u p the process? How can we increase synergies?

Allow me to say a word about weapons of mass destruction, a related area. As we say in our security strategy, the possible link with terrorism is a nightmare. That is precisely the reason why the Union and its Member States have intensified their efforts to prevent proliferation. For example, we work with Russia to dispose of ex-weapons plutonium and to destroy chemical weapons. We are working to improve the control of high activity radioactive sources, in the EU and in third countries. We have stepped up our financial support for the IAEA.

I want us to go further now. I will just mention two or three ideas. We must work together to ensure implementation of the very important Security Council Resolution on Weapons of Mass Destruction agreed just a few days ago. We must together ensure a successful outcome of the NPT 2005 review Conference. We must render the Additional Protocol to the IAEA Safeguards system universal. We must criminalize proliferation activities.

In a few weeks time, on 25 and 26 of June, the UE and the US will hold their next Summit meeting in Ireland. I am confident that the Summit will deliver tangible results in the fight against terrorism.

Let me conclude. Terrorism is a common and urgent threat for both Europe and America. We are in it together. All the people I met over the past days are working very hard to fight terrorism. So are we. It will be a long and painful struggle for all of us. All the more reason to work closely together.

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• EU action in response to 11th September 2001 (9/9/2002)