“In the end, all interior ministers adopted a joint declaration on the recent attacks in Europe,” said German interior minister Horst Seehofer said after the meeting. [ Ссылка ] #islam #terror #terrorists #TerrorAttack #Austria #ViennaAttack #vienna #EU #europe #EuropeanUnion #european

The European Union (EU) will start to revamp the Schengen system, with a new strategy to be tabled in months, as part of a wider effort to fight terrorism, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said.

Speaking at a press conference after meeting with EU home affairs ministers, Johansson said a first Schengen Forum will take place at the end of this month for the exchange of views that will lead to the publication of a new Schengen strategy in May next year.

The Schengen Area comprises 26 European countries that allow passport-free travel between them. It is made up of 22 of the 27 EU states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

She said the issue of a well-functioning Schengen area was at the top of the agenda at the home affairs ministers' virtual meeting on Friday, with many ministers mentioning the importance of the protection of the EU's external borders.

The meeting was held against the backdrop of the recent terrorist attacks in France and Austria and on the fifth anniversary of the attacks in Paris. On Nov. 13, 2015, a series of terrorist attacks took place in Paris and the city's northern suburb, during which some 130 people were killed in several mass shootings and suicide bombings.

"These are attacks on our common European values and our fundamental rights. We stand against these attacks as we did five years ago, as a single society," she said.

Johansson said the existing proposals and security initiatives developed over the years have to pass through the European Parliament and the Council of the EU with urgency, especially the proposals for a regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online.

Besides, border guards and police must be able to cross-check identity documents against all relevant information systems. Achieving interoperability of the systems by 2023 will be a priority at all levels, she said.

The commissioner mentioned that in a study that Frontex carried out last year, 22 percent of those entering the Schengen area were not checked towards the Schengen information system. "So here is clearly room for improvement."

EU interior ministers on Friday (13 November), promised a coordinated crackdown on Islamist extremism after last month’s attacks in Paris, Nice and Vienna, as the bloc walks a fine line between tackling the threat of terror attacks and stigmatizing its Muslim communities.

“In the end, all interior ministers adopted a joint declaration on the recent attacks in Europe,” said German interior minister Horst Seehofer said after the meeting. “It’s a great sign of cohesion and solidarity,” he added, speaking alongside EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

In their joint statement, ministers agreed to finalize negotiations on regulations for faster removal of online terrorist content by the end of this year.

“The aim is to enable issuing removal orders with cross-border effect to create a new and rapid and effective instrument to counter terrorist content online within an hour or less of its being reported while maintaining effective safeguards for the protection of fundamental rights,” the statement read.

Before the meeting, Seehofer had stated that in the fight against terrorism, investigators must also be able to access encrypted communication.

“Personally, I am in favour of us making use of all the intelligence services that are theoretically available to us,” he told reporters.

Earlier this week, mooted plans to ban the secure encryption of messages on channels such as WhatsApp caused outrage by civil rights and data protection activists and were toned down in the final ministerial statement.

External borders and police cooperation

While ministers said border security would remain the responsibility of member states, they backed efforts to build coordinated EU security databases.

They also agreed to reinforce the EU’s external borders as “the competent authorities need to know who enters the Schengen area and who travels within it.”

“We must effectively control our external borders, record entries and departures from the Schengen area in digital form, and cooperate more closely with third countries in order to combat terrorist threats,” they said.

There is a need to “strengthen and further develop options for security measures within the Schengen area as well as instruments for cross-border law enforcement cooperation” by continuing “with the implementation of European legislation on the new databases and interoperability of our databases”, ministers said.

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