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John F.B. Wilson
Texas A&M University European Union Fellow 2008
JOHN F.B. WILSON works for the European
Commission in Brussels, whose main role is to
propose policies for the European Union. For the
last three years he has worked on aviation
security, part of the EU’s policy on domestic
security, preparing proposals to revise and
extend it. He is now a visiting fellow at the EU
Center of Excellence, collaborating with the
Integrative Homeland Security Center of the Bush
School of Governement and Public Service on
transport security.
After a spell as an economist in the British
government in Edinburgh, John Wilson has spent
his career in the European Commission, preparing
and negotiating proposals in different fields.
He's worked on regional policy, and external
relations of the European Union. He moved to
transport policy and helped initiate the
measures to reform and liberalize the railway
sector. He then worked on aviation policy, in
particular the development of passengers’
rights, before moving to aviation security.
John Wilson is British, and pro-European, and
studied economics and political science at
Oxford and urban planning at Glasgow University.
Fight Against Terrorism Within the European Union
John F.B. Wilson
The challenge for the Union
 Terrorism
is a grave threat to the security of the
European Union. Not only does it put lives at
risk, but also it can undermine the free
movement of people, ideas and products which are
the foundations of the Union and test the
openness and tolerance of European society. It
can threaten vital social functions and impose
huge costs. While the Union had started to
develop measures against serious crime in the
years before 2001, as its responsibilities were
extended to judicial and police cooperation,
9/11 was the wake-up call, as it was in the
United States. The adoption of an action plan to
help the pursuit and prosecution of suspects and
legislation on the protection of transport
rapidly followed.
Fighting terrorism within the European Union
presents some particular challenges. On the one
hand, national borders are losing their
functions. For example, people can move freely
between twenty-two of the twenty-seven Member
States without having to show their passports,
so control of the outer frontiers becomes
crucial.
On the other hand, judiciaries, police forces
and intelligence services remain national
(employed and managed by the Member States), so
the Union has to get them to cooperate
effectively despite different traditions and
practices. And when the Union legislates - and
it has passed important legislation on security
- the national administrations are responsible
for implementation.
Protection
The Union has concentrated on the protection of
transport and of critical infrastructure and on
the pursuit of suspects. After 9/11, the
protection of civil aviation was the first
priority. The Union adopted binding standards,
applying to all airports except the very
smallest, all flights and all passengers,
irrespective of their nationality. This means
that standards harmonized to a high level apply
throughout the twenty-seven Member States: a
state can do more but cannot do less. These
rules are quite similar to those of the United
States, although there remain some differences.
Both the Union and the United States adapt their
rules to new threats, for example that of liquid
explosives which emerged in 2006.
Strict implementation of the standards is
essential, so not only does Union legislation
require Member States to control quality, it
also lays down inspections by the European
Commission in order to control the controllers,
unusual in the Union’s way of doing things and a
sign of the seriousness of the threat.
Maritime transport was another priority. The
Union contributed to the drafting of a code for
the security of international ships and of port
facilities by the International Maritime
Organization and then wrote the agreed text into
European law, at the same time extending it to
domestic shipping. Again the legislation
established a system of inspections by the
Commission. Subsequently its scope has been
extended to cover all relevant areas of ports,
not just the interface between ship and port.
Finally, infrastructure can be critical for
maintaining vital functions, including the
supply chain, health, safety, security and
economic and social well being. In the Union,
the disruption or destruction of critical
infrastructure could have severe cross border
effects, for example gas pipe lines or large
ports and airports. The European Commission has
proposed a program to protect infrastructure
critical at the European level, against all
hazards. This would include a network to
exchange rapid alerts and best practices and
legislation requiring national governments to
designate European critical infrastructure,
according to agreed criteria, and operators to
draw up security plans. This proposal is now on
the table of the Council (national ministers)
for discussion and adoption.
Pursuit and prosecution
For the fight to be effective, terrorists must
be pursued and brought to justice, despite
national borders and jurisdictions. The Union
does not employ its own security, police,
customs and immigration officers and the
existence of national judiciaries and police
forces, with different rules, practices and
traditions, poses challenged to the pursuit of
terrorists. These differences are being tackled
and the Union is making a major contribution to
enhancing police and judicial cooperation
Crucial here is agreement on what terrorism is,
and that it is a serious crime to be pursued.
Soon after 9/11, the Union adopted legislation
that not only defined terrorism in general but
also terrorist offences in detail, and required
Member States to punish convicted criminals with
prison sentences heavier than if terrorism was
not involved.
Also vital is the mutual recognition of the
judicial decisions of one Member State by
another. Here the Union took a great step
forward with the adoption of the European arrest
warrant. Under this, when one Member State
requests another to extradite a suspect, the
second is obliged to comply. This has worked
well, cutting greatly the time needed for
extraditions (from months and even years to
days). Proposals on the recognition of evidence
warrants and orders to detain or deprive of
liberty are now on the table of the Council.
Another initiative would give the law
enforcement agencies of one Member State the
right to obtain information from those of
another when that information is available.
Terrorists need money to operate, so the Union
has acted on the sharing of financial
intelligence, the freezing of assets, money
laundering, cash couriers and bank secrecy. They
need to communicate and legislation has been
adopted requiring telecommunications operators
to retain data under certain conditions. Travel
is also a necessity, so the European Commission
has just made a proposal that would require air
carriers to submit advance information on
passengers on international flights (Passenger
Name records), while ensuring the protection of
such personal data.
To help national police forces and judiciaries
to work together, the Union has set up two
agencies. Europol collects stores and
distributes intelligence on all forms of serious
international crime. Eurojust brings together
senior prosecutors and magistrates from the
Member States to assist judiciaries conduct
investigations and prosecutions across borders.
Prevention
In addition, the Union is working on preventive
measures. For example, the Commission has just
proposed extending the definition of terrorism
to include public provocation, recruitment and
training, so that all Member States would punish
these crimes. At the same time, it proposed an
action plan on explosives, designed to make
access to them more difficult and to help law
enforcement agencies detect and disposal of
explosive that have been lost or stolen. And
next year it intends to present a plan to lessen
the threat of chemical, biological, radiological
and nuclear weapons.
In short
Since 9/11, the European Union has developed a
wide reaching program for domestic action
against terrorism, covering prevention,
protection and pursuit and prosecution. In
complement, it is using its external relations
policy to tackle threats beyond its borders. In
all this, its aim is to fight terrorism without
compromising the rights and liberties of
citizens.
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