No safety guarantee for Europe
2004-03-30 20:38
Brussels - Europe's new "terrorism tsar" on Tuesday urged EU states to fulfil pledges to boost the fight against terror, but admitted there is no cast-iron guarantee against a new atrocity like the Madrid bombings.
Speaking a day after starting his new job in the wake of the March 11 attacks in the Spanish capital, Gijs de Vries underlined that he alone could not be responsible for protecting Europe from new attacks.
"It doesn't depend on one person, it depends on the political will of our member states," the former Dutch deputy interior minister told reporters in Brussels.
Speaking alongside his new boss, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, he underlined that Europe, while bolstering its level of alert against terrorism, must continue to ensure that civil liberties are not abused.
But he conceded that "that means that there can never be in any society a guarantee of 100% security."
De Vries was named as the European Union's new counter-terrorism co-ordinator at an EU summit last week which was overshadowed by the Madrid blasts, the worst terror attack in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombings.
The EU also agreed new measures including boosting intelligence-sharing and a mutual defence clause. But they also said the EU should do more to implement measures agreed after the September 2001 attacks on the United States, such as cutting funding to extremists and ratifying an EU-wide arrest warrant.
De Vries said his role was to "assist member states in doing the things they have said they would do, to deliver on commitments," adding: "That is the central challenge."