EU: The European Union's foreign policy chief has hailed co-ordinated swoops on suspected Islamic militants as a demonstration of increased co-operation within the 25-member bloc in the fight against terrorism.
The raids conducted by police in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium led to the arrest of Mr Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", who is suspected of playing a central role in planning the devastating March 11th Madrid train attacks.
"This is a sign of the co-operation that exists already among countries of the European Union in order to prevent terrorist attacks," Mr Javier Solana told reporters at a meeting of European Union justice and interior ministers in Luxembourg.
"The fight against terrorism is an international battle and it cannot be fought by a country on its own. International co-operation is fundamental, and the most important co-operation is intelligence co-operation and the exchange of information."
The EU ministers met to review progress in the bloc's fight against terrorism since the March bombings, which killed 191 people, and the September 11th, 2001, attacks on US cities.
They also discussed plans by Mr Solana to increase intelligence-sharing among national security services, which EU officials say is key to countering international terrorism.
EU diplomats said ministers had welcomed proposals by Mr Solana to expand the role of the EU Situation Centre, where military officials assess threats posed by conflicts outside the EU, to include monitoring the internal threat of terrorism.
He suggested that the centre should co-operate with the EU's Counterterrorism Group, where heads of national anti-terror units meet, and would collate and analyse intelligence from national law enforcement agencies and other services dealing with counterterrorism.
Some member-states had called for the bloc to create a European FBI or CIA to boost intelligence-sharing, but diplomats said Mr Solana had chosen to enhance co-operation rather than creating new EU agencies.
"What I have proposed today is a mechanism which, to my mind, is simple but which can be efficient and can be implemented rapidly," Mr Solana said.
The ministers also discussed efforts to implement agreed anti-terrorism action, where Italy and Greece are lagging far behind others on key measures such as a European arrest warrant.
Ireland, current holder of the EU Presidency, has drafted a damning report about the lack of progress which will go to EU leaders when they meet for a Brussels summit on June 17th-18th.
The EU's Counterterrorism Co-ordinator, Mr Gijs de Vries, said member-states had until the end of the month to catch up with Britain and Denmark, which had the best track record, and that Greece had announced it was making progress on the warrant.
Athens, due to host the Olympic Games in two months, has mounted a massive security operation costing $1.2 billion and has arranged for NATO to protect its airspace and coastal waters.
- (Reuters)