Europe's eye on terrorism

Washington Post: On Sept. 21, 2001, the European Council -- the European Union's governing body -- met and adopted a "Plan of Action to Combat Terrorism." But the attacks on New York and Washington were not sufficient to provoke all of Europe's member states to pass the various elements of the "Plan" into law or to start sharing intelligence on a regular basis. While individual states did track and arrest suspected terrorists -- there have been 9,000 such arrests, according to one source -- the record on shared information is poorer. At least one of the Moroccans accused of planting this month's Madrid train bombs was enrolled in a German university.
After Madrid, the atmosphere may be changing. David Blunkett, Britain's home secretary, rebuked the EU for its "waffle" on terrorism; Le Monde, a newspaper not known for its Euroskepticism, has described a new counter-terrorist unit within Europol, the fledgling European police service, as "an empty shell" that was regularly deprived of essential information by the very states that sponsored its creation.
Reaction
But will Europe, even post-Madrid, react to terrorism with anything more than yet another committee? Last week, the European Council reaffirmed its commitment to strategies agreed to in the past, including the creation of a common definition of terrorism, a European arrest warrant, joint investigation teams and a new institution -- Eurojust -- specifically designed to track cross-border crime. But there are still enormous obstacles. Not only do the EU's members have wildly different policing systems and criminal laws, but many object in principle to the notion of a multilateral "FBI" with jurisdiction over national police forces, and understandably so. Because the EU is not a sovereign government, it does not have institutions that can competently monitor privacy violations -- which makes Europeans reluctant to give greater powers to supranational police.
All of which adds a new wrinkle to the transatlantic scuffles of recent months. Clearly, the United States needs European cooperation to hunt terrorists. At the same time, European police forces and the European public might benefit from some of America's post-9/11 experiences, both with better policing and with the civil liberties debate that should follow. Here is an area, at least, in which more practical cooperation could help both side.