UK to push tough terror laws

2005-09-11 13:03

Manchester - Britain has pushed forward with its two pronged response to the London attacks, setting an ambitious agenda for adopting anti-terror measures and cutting off funds to potential bombers.

The spectre of the July 7 strikes, which killed 52 commuters and four suspected suicide bombers, hung over two major meetings of European Union ministers hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government.

During the informal talks in northern England, the British EU presidency announced it would try to push through a comprehensive package of measures by December with the agreement of all the EU's institutions.

Then, in a meeting that ended in Manchester on Saturday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown used the eve of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States to send a new message to would-be bombers.

EU finance ministers "renewed their determination to create a hostile environment for terrorists and those who finance terrorism," he told reporters.

"You will have regular announcements about new information that has allowed us to freeze assets of terrorists," he pledged.

Laying out what sceptics say is an improbable calendar, Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced that Britain wants agreement on telephone records and Internet protocols, biometric data and visa information by December.

In an unprecedented move, he will try to get the 25 EU member states, the bloc's executive commission and the European Parliament on board in around three months.

"We believe that overall approach would make the thing far stronger," he said on Friday after talks with EU interior and justice ministers in Newcastle.

The assembly has been notoriously slow in the past, taking up to 18 months to approve legislation, but Clarke said the bombings had crystallised opinion.

"All European parliamentarians ... should face up to the fact that the people who elected them want the European Union to have a strong package of measures to fight terrorism and serious and organised crime," he said.

The European Commission's vice-president and justice commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU executive was supportive and optimistic.

Others expressed serious doubts.

"I would be very surprised if it happened that quickly," said Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden.

Some of the new measures, such as harmonising biometric data, have wide backing, but others, like data retention, are far less popular.

Under them, companies would be obliged to keep details about callers, such as who they spoke to and where and when, for up to a year. No record of the actual conversation or message itself would be kept.

The ministers also want information about communications that went unanswered. Those details helped Spanish police investigate the fatal March 2004 Madrid bombings.

Extending the length of time data is held would be relatively cheap but adding unanswered calls would prove extremely expensive.

Britain has also raised scepticism, and indeed fears among people concerned about their privacy, with calls for a "new balance" between individual rights and the security needs of the wider community.

In establishing that, Clarke has urged judges to re-examine the way they interpret the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) when ruling on deporting foreign terror suspects.

He warned that countries could withdraw from the convention, which says suspects cannot be deported if they could face torture, if it protects foreigners rather than EU citizens.

"The question is: are the rules which were established in 1948 for the European convention, in the circumstances of 1948, exactly the same circumstances as there are now?" he said.

Britain is considering a list of up to 100 names compiled by its embassies of foreigners who could be barred from the country on security grounds.

- AFP