EU: The Irish presidency was apparently scrambling to catch up, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels
After a week of shock and mourning, interrupted by the political upheaval of Spain's general election, the European Union yesterday produced its first substantive response to last week's massacre in Madrid.
The emergency meeting in Brussels yesterday was organised by the Irish presidency but the EU's biggest member-states have taken control of the response to Madrid, leaving Dublin to catch up.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, who chaired the meeting of justice and interior ministers, said they wanted to launch "an invigorated Europe-wide response against the cancer of terrorism".
They agreed that more must be done to ensure that member-states fulfil commitments made after September 11th to improve co-operation between police and judicial authorities and to crack down on terrorists' financial assets.
They approved a solidarity declaration that anticipates a clause in the EU's draft constitutional treaty obliging member-states to come to each other's aid in the event of a terrorist attack. In the case of neutral member-states, such as Ireland, it is up to each national government to decide what form its assistance should take.
The ministers rejected some of the European Commission's wilder proposals, such as a European register of persons who have faced criminal proceedings for terrorist offences, even if they have not been convicted. The ministers backed a database of convicted criminals, however, along with rules obliging telephone and Internet providers to retain data on communications traffic.
The EU is to have a security co-ordinator based in the Council of Ministers, where national governments meet, rather than in the Commission. The EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, has six months to come up with proposals on improving intelligence sharing among member-states.
Mr McDowell acknowledged that intelligence services are jealous of their information and warned against expecting too much in terms of co-operation.
As if to confirm the point, the French Interior Minister, Mr Nicholas Sarkozy, declared that his country, along with Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, would share intelligence but would not necessarily pass it on to other member-states. Ministers from the five largest member-states met in advance of yesterday's meeting and their police chiefs will meet in Madrid next week to discuss practical measures.
Mr McDowell yesterday denied that the Irish presidency had been slow to respond to the Madrid attacks and explained his own decision not to travel to the city on the basis that his presence might prove a distraction from the investigation into the bombings. Many EU diplomats were surprised, however, that neither the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste nor the Minister for Foreign Affairs were in Madrid last Friday, the day after the attacks, when most governments sent senior representatives.
Irish presidency officials were reluctant at first to call an emergency ministerial meeting to discuss the EU's response to the attacks.
When Germany and France called for such a meeting on Sunday, most observers in Brussels expected the presidency to agree immediately.
On Monday morning, however, presidency officials in Dublin and Brussels continued to play down the likelihood of any special meeting before next week's summit. By the time yesterday's meeting was announced on Monday evening, the presidency appeared to be scrambling to catch up.
At yesterday's meeting, Mr Sarkozy and his German counterpart, Mr Otto Schily, criticised the presidency's draft declaration as lacking in detail and insisted that the meeting should continue for a few hours longer to flesh it out. Mr Schily declared afterwards that he had ensured that the declaration would contain more than "general phrases".
The Irish presidency has won widespread praise in Brussels for its efficiency, subtlety and imagination and the Taoiseach has shown great skill and tenacity in reviving negotiations on the constitutional treaty. The Government appears, however, to have made a political miscalculation in its handling of the aftermath of Madrid.
By hesitating for four days before orchestrating a European response to the biggest ever terrorist attack on EU soil, the presidency created a political vacuum that allowed the "big five" to take control of the agenda.
After the Franco-German flouting of the Stability and Growth Pact last year and the "Big Three" meeting in Berlin last month, many small states fear that the big countries are determined to dominate an enlarged EU. This week's events can only nourish such anxieties.