European leaders and the fight against terrorism
The fight against terrorism, particularly on the cyberspace, ranked high on the agenda of the European Council Summer summit held in Brussels
Florentin Căpitănescu, 23.06.2017, 12:38
Leaders of EU Member States convened in Brussels for the traditional European Council Summer Summit. The main topic on Thursdays agenda was the fight against terrorism, a phenomenon which has been gaining an unprecedented momentum in Europe of late. The Council wants to cooperate more closely with the online sector. European Council president Donald Tusk called on social networking sites to take action with a view to prevent online content that is deemed to incite terrorism.
President Tusk referred to the development of new tools to detect and automatically remove online content promoting terrorism. The EU official said that if online giants continue to shun the responsibility to join the fight against terrorism, the EU is ready to pass harsh laws regulating this field. Access to electronic hard evidence is key to combating terrorism, the Council pointed out. EU officials want to exchange information quickly and effectively with law enforcement agencies both within and outside the EU.
On the other hand, participants in the summit agreed on a common collective defense mechanism, which calls for deeper integration of Member States. Moreover, EU leaders urged the European Investment Bank to come up with new ways to supporting defense research and the development of defense-related activities. All this time the Council has called on Member States to develop capabilities of their own, that should be funded under the European Defense Fund and the European Defense Industrial Development Program. Attending the EU summit, Klaus Iohannis said Romania takes a keen interest in the so-called structured collaboration on external security and defense. Klaus Iohannis:
“Romania is very interested in this. We want to have a close cooperation with all EU Member States and make our own contribution. Obviously, I repeat what Ive said on other occasions, namely that we dont want to run parallel to NATO, but to develop structures that meet both the needs on the Union and supplement Allied structures.
Before all the details on this agreement are sorted out, the Councils message is clear: all member states are urged to take part in the common defense mechanism. (Translated by V. Palcu)
