|
News Releases
No. 23/06
March 10, 2006
Open letter to European Citizens on March 11, 2006
Second European Day for the Victims of Terrorism
By European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini,
Commissioner for
Justice, Freedom & Security
On the second anniversary of the
Madrid train bombings, the most deadly
terrorist attack in Europe, European Commission Vice
President
Frattini (pictured at left) issued an
"Open Letter" to the citizens of Europe expressing
solidarity with the victims of
terrorist attacks in Madrid, London and
around the world and setting out the European Union’s
continuing efforts to fight against terrorism:
“Let us not forget that such attacks represent an
attack on each and every one of us in Europe - an attack
on the very principles of
fundamental rights that the
European Union is built upon and an attack on the shared
values and freedoms that we each hold dear-the rights to
life, freedom, justice and security, perhaps the most
cherished rights of them all.[…] Their memory inspires
us to continue fighting terrorism so that nobody will
ever have to go through a similar human tragedy,”
said Commissioner Frattini on the second European Day
commemorating the victims of terrorism.
The European Commission will continue to play an
important part in delivering the
EU Counter-Terrorism
Strategy, which includes measures such as:
-
Identify and address the factors which contribute to
radicalisation and recruitment to terrorism and identify
policies that could be channelled more effectively
towards tackling possible factors that contribute to
radicalisation like terrorist propaganda in the media,
youth vulnerability and integration failure.
-
Disruption of money flows which enable terrorists to
travel, hide and purchase or produce the means to cause
destruction and carnage. The Commission has proposed
measures to tighten controls on money transfers and has
taken up the highly sensitive issue of how to prevent
the misuse of non-profit organisations by terrorists to
finance their activities.
-
The Commission is working on enhancing the protection of
critical infrastructure by way of a
European Programme
for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP).
-
Instruments that allow law enforcement authorities to
obtain relevant information from across the Union with
the same ease as within the Member States. The
Commission has adopted a proposal that would allow
Member State authorities responsible for internal
security and Europol to access the Visa Information
System.
-
Improvement of police co-operation, especially at the
internal borders of the European Union.
-
Retention of telecommunications traffic data.
-
The
European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which was brought to
the fore in the aftermath of the attempted terrorist
attacks in London of 21st July when a suspected
terrorist was swiftly extradited from Italy to the UK.
-
The Commission’s approach to combating terrorism also
includes a strong focus on enhancing preparedness and
improving consequence management. The Commission has
succeeded in creating a general link between all
specialised Rapid Alert Systems (RAS) that are currently
hosted by the Commission via a system called
ARGUS.
To read the full “Open Letter”:
http://www.eurunion.org/partner/euusterror/FrattiniLetter11Mar2006.doc.
Further Contact Information
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
|
