Radicalisation

The European Parliament today adopted a report setting out its position on how to tackle radicalisation in Europe. After the vote, Green civil liberties spokesperson Jean Lambert said:

“The European Parliament has today found common ground on how to tackle radicalisation, which has to be a core element of addressing the terrorist threat we face. It is important that we work together on those issues that have broad political support to effectively tackle radicalisation.

"Specifically, this means strengthening local capacity to combat violent extremism and working together with affected communities to address radicalisation. This requires the trust of those communities and this will not happen if everyone from a particular group is treated as a suspect. To this end, this report makes clear that violent extremism is not confined to a single faith or ideology. MEPs have also made clear that the threat of terrorism cannot be mixed up with current refugee crisis, as some politicians have tried to do: many refugees are fleeing a similar terror threat.

"In terms of addressing the broader terrorist threat, this report also outlines some important measures we can all agree on. The Paris attacks have again underlined the need to strengthen police, judicial and intelligence services. Not only do they need more resources for investigative and police work, there is also a glaring need to improve cooperation between the different authorities in EU member states. There are existing tools, like joint investigation teams in Europol and Eurojust, but they are hardly used and under-resourced. The report also underlines that cooperation with third countries should be carried out in full respect of human rights.

"However, it is unfortunate that there is a renewed focus on mass surveillance measures, like the PNR air passenger data monitoring system or via obligations on internet providers. These measures are inefficient and a massive drain on resources that are badly needed elsewhere, notably for strengthening the capacity of police and security services to monitor actual known suspects, such as those involved in the Paris attacks."