EPP Foreign Affairs Ministers call for a global and comprehensive strategy to fight terrorism

19. January 2016

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Following the meeting of the EPP Foreign Affairs Ministers yesterday in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council Meeting in Brussels, the Co-Chairs of the EPP Foreign Affairs Ministers, Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, and Elmar Brok MEP, Chairman of the AFET Committee in the European Parliament, made the following statement on the fight against global terrorism: "The latest terrorist attacks in Turkey, Tunisia, France, Kuwait illustrate a worrying expansion of global terrorism, notably Da’esh/ISIL. With our allies, we are committed to defeating terrorism and preserving international peace and security. Within the European Union, the Member States must strengthen the existing tools and mechanisms to fight terrorism. Priority should be given to four areas: preventing radicalization through the Radicalization Awareness Network;enhanced informationsharing through the Schengen Information System; urgently finalising the directive on the use of passenger name record data for law enforcement purposes in order to identify of travel routes of terrorists, and advancing legislation on the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms. We welcome the European Commission European Agenda on Security which promotes the highest level of protection of fundamental rights in the EU. It provides a basis for joint action between EU institutions, agencies, Member States, civil society and international partners to combat terrorism, to prevent radicalization and to fight organised crime, as well as cyber-crime. Terrorism must also be countered online. All the actors including the internet industry must work together to achieve this goal. Furthermore, we need to act globally under UN leadership and cooperate with regional partners. It is vital that the states in the Middle East and Northern Africaacquire more visible and practical containment capacities so that they can independently take on more operational responsibilities. Another way to combat terrorism is to suppress its financing. The implementation of the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and the Funds Transfers Regulation, as well as the UN resolution 2199 of February 2015, which aims to disrupt the funding and financial resources of Da’esh/ISIL are crucial. It is important to find efficient measures in our Member States and societies, in order to prevent further recruitment of foreign fighters. In addition, we must address the return of foreign fighters to Europe, who have been trained and fought abroad and which constitute a serious threat to the security in Europe. To fight terrorism, we must act on several fronts and work with the international and regional institutions as well as bilaterally with our partners in the public and private sector.”


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For more information contact:

 

Alexandra Henman

Deputy Spokesperson

+32 471 90 76 84

alh@epp.eu

 

Angelos Athanasopoulos

National and Regional Press Director

+32 471 90 76 35

aa@epp.eu

 

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