Tag: terrorism

Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, stopped short today (5 February) of linking Hezbollah to a terrorist attack at a Bulgarian airport last summer, despite recent findings suggesting the opposite. The Iranian-backed group is currently not on the EU list of terrorist organisations.

While governments spend more time and funding on countering Islamic extremism, Europe faces an increasing threat from domestic extremist groups that has a growing potential to distort mainstream politics on the continent, says Tamás Berecz.

An unprecedented terrorist attack shook the Bulgarian airport of Burgas yesterday (18 July) when a terrorist activated a bomb inside a bus packed with tourists freshly arrived from Israel for holidays in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, killing at least eight and wounding 30. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “appalled” and “deeply shocked” by the attack.

France has vigorously contradicted the European Union's counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove, who said on Monday (5 September) that the Libyan war had raised the terror threat in Europe.

Instead of suicide bombers, it is possible to groom "nurses, teachers, beautiful housewives and good husbands" at Tora Bora, one of the "scariest" areas of Afghanistan and where Osama Bin Laden was long thought to be hiding, Mina Wali, founder of a private school in the disadvantaged area, told EurActiv in an interview.

The death of Osama Bin Laden represents a significant victory for the United States and its European allies. However, it will have little effect on Al-Qaida's "leaderless" model for terrorism, nor does it resolve the continuing serious difficulties in Pakistan, argues security analyst Scott Stewart.

EU leaders today (2 May) hailed the demise of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who was killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan. His death marks the end of a decade-long hunt for the mastermind of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

A serious cyber attack on the European Commission was reported yesterday evening (23 March) as EU leaders prepared to gather in Brussels for a two-day summit during which military intervention in Libya is expected to take centre stage.

The unfolding Egypt crisis has eclipsed the agenda of today's (4 February) EU summit, which was expected to focus on energy and innovation. But it has also revealed the limitations of the European Union's High Representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, who has had to take a back seat as the 'Jasmine' revolutionary wave rolls on.

Morocco's message to the EU in the context of unfolding revolutions in the region is a wider risk that a zone of unlawfulness stretching from the south of Algeria to the north of Mauritania to Mali and to Niger - a haven for AlQaeda - could expand, the Moroccan envoy to Brussels told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

A free trade area rather than a strategic partnership is what the EU needs with India, writes Gauri Khandekar for Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE.

The European Commission wants to improve the EU's tracking of illegal assets, including new powers to seize assets and freeze the bank accounts of criminals and terrorists, according to plans to be unveiled today (22 November). 

Flaws in the US anti-terror system exposed by the recent arrest in Amsterdam of two suspected terrorists flying from Chicago pushed MEPs from the two main parties in the European Parliament to ask for "better" rather than "more" security checks ahead of a crucial new round of negotiations between the EU and the US over Passenger Name Records (PNRs).

Afghan forces should be leading security operations throughout their country by 2014, an international conference said on Tuesday (20 July), and they should be aiming to take over from foreign troops in some areas this year.

US President Barack Obama's security strategy is a clear departure from that of its predecessor and a decisive step towards solving the challenges of the 21st century and preparing us for the world of tomorrow, writes Javier Solana, the European Union's former High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.

While body scanners have already been introduced in some EU airports to step up the fight against terrorism, both the European Commission and the European Parliament stress that their impact on health and privacy protection needs to be fully assessed before the Union can adopt a common position on the new technology.

Estonia, which recently suffered what appeared to be the largest political cyber-attack ever seen on EU soil, is organising an EU ministerial meeting on the protection of vital infrastructure against cyber-crime, the European Commission has announced.

One of the youngest MEPs in the European Parliament, German liberal Alexander Alvaro, told EurActiv in an interview that Eurosceptics will try to gain ground at the European elections next June, but will not succeed "because in times of crisis, voters do not want to try new experiments". 

On his first day in office, US President Barack Obama put an end to the previous administration's controversial methods of fighting the war against terrorism and established a strong diplomatic team to address the world's hotbeds of tension.

The European Union has been engaging in in-depth discussions with the United States over the last three years to harbour prisoners detained in the controversial US Guantanamo centre in Cuba, EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove revealed in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

Justice and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot congratulated the European Parliament for its "maturity" and "capacity for co-decision" after the adoption yesterday (23 September) of new European legislation to combat terrorism. But he lamented that large swathes of the text had been watered down.

According to Swiss police reports, Al-Qaida has threatened to launch attacks on the European football championships due to be held in Austria and Switzerland in June, leading to heightened vigilance by security forces.

Terrorism is still the "main threat to society" and therefore new tools are needed in the field of counter-terrorism, according to a Commission communication presented by Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini on November 6.

Inciting a terrorist act or providing instruction for making a bomb or a weapon via the internet will be considered as out-and-out terrorist offences, according to new proposals that the Commission will make public next Tuesday.