Honourable Members,
As you all stressed, the Brussels attacks illustrated once again the severity of the challenges we are facing.
Terrorism claimed more than 180 lives since January 2015 in Europe – and many more seriously injured, many more lives changed forever.
You know because I said it many times before.
But if we don’t put aside the ‘national silo’ mentality terrorists will strike again.
This is about information sharing, trust, joinng forces. Working beyond our borders. Giving our experts to Europol’s Counter- Terrorism Centre (ECTC).
That is the only way to respond to the threat. Together.
We all need to live up to our responsibilities. All of us.
The Commission, the Member States and this Parliament.
There is no time for blame games.
The priorities and gaps have been identified.
Now is – more than ever – time for work to deliver actions.
And this can only happen by cooperating to the maximum, while respecting the principles of our democratic societies.
That’s why I welcome the finalization of the data protection package, to be voted by this House this week.
This is an important step which will help us to develop our future tools on the exchange of information.
You will also vote to adopt the PNR Directive: the PNR framework is one of the tools that can substantially contribute to our security.
I will continue pushing Member States to implement quickly, and not wait for two years.
Mr. Verhofstadt, I share some of your views.
I want to assure you that the Commission stands ready to support Member States to ensure a uniform understanding and implementation, as the Commission also supports interconnecting national Passenger Information Units.
Your wide support therefore on Thursday will send a strong signal on the role and contribution of this House to security policies.
We made all together some progress in recent months – that has to be acknowledged:
-more information is being shared between Member States but still not consistently or comprehensively enough.
-more alerts are created in the Schengen Information System which is proven to be one of the most valuable tools to enhance security.
-the European Counter Terrorism Centre with Europol is operational and we still expect all Member States to send their experts and use to its full potential this nerve center of our operations.
Europol has a very specific mission by the Treaties, but as President Weber reminded, an important-one: to support and strengthen action by the Member States police authorities and other law enforcement services and their mutual cooperation.
-Both Europol and Frontex are already supporting Member States to better protect our external borders.
We are working with countries such as Turkey, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan and the Western Balkans against terrorism.
I was in Turkey last week with Europol’s Director in order to accelerate our effective cooperation:
we need Turkey, as we need other key countries in the region that can share information with us on radicalized persons or on persons leaving or returning from ISIS occupied areas.
On 20 April, one year after the presentation of the Agenda, the Commission will report formally on the progress made so far on what needs to be accelerated and what more is needed on the road towards a Geniune Security Union.
Over the last 5 months, we put on the table important legislative proposals on terrorism, firearms, criminal records, borders, information sharing – all of which should still be adopted as a matter of priority.
We cannot expect quick results on security if after each attack we proclaim our determination, but then water down every good proposal on the table.
Now on information sharing.
Here we are finally coming to understand that the less information we share, the less we know, and the less we can prevent.
Our information landscape for security in the EU is simply too complex, too fragmented.
If our systems don’t talk to each other, if they are not connected, we will continue putting data in black boxes.
Data must be inter-connected to be useful.
Many EU instruments on information sharing are still under-used.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – we have to start using it more.
Last but not least, a word also on radicalisation, which is key, as President Pittella stressed.
Last week, I was at the UN conference in Geneva.
We cannot close our eyes to the fact that again the terrorists were young persons, born and raised in the EU.
These are our youngsters.
The roots of radicalization are complex and multi-facetted.
There is no button that we can press to solve it.
That is why we must re-think our integration and inclusion efforts, our educational structures, our whole approach to promoting tolerance and common values.
Honourable Members,
Let us not repeat ourselves. Let us avoid empty words.
Our challenges are considerable – and they are shared.
Let us prove our unity and resilience with concrete actions.