EU stelt nieuwe functie 'Terreurcoördinator' in (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union is set to get a new co-ordinator who will work under the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana to manage its actions against terrorism.

The person will feed information to Europe's justice and home affairs ministers and "will co-ordinate the work of the Council in combating terrorism", according to a draft declaration by the Irish EU Presidency.

However, the exact duties of the post are not yet clear. It is also not clear whether the person could eventually make concrete proposals to member states.

A name is not fixed but the Dutchman Klaas deVries, a former interior minister, has been mentioned.

EU leaders could adopt the decision to create this post as early as next week at their summit on 25-26 March.

The UK home secretary David Blunkett said on Friday morning, ahead of the extraordinary summit of justice ministers, that the position "pulls together information which is already available, this is not about creating entirely new institutions".

Austria's Ernst Strasser said the idea was "sensible" while France's Nicolas Sarkozy said there was "relative consensus" for the post.

A network of agencies

Cold water has been poured on the idea of a European equivalent of the CIA. German interior minister Otto Schily said that the idea went "too far" as there is no European government.

However, he did suggest that there should be a network of member states' intelligence services.

The draft declaration, set to be finalised by heads of state next week, is also pragmatic about the length to which member states will go to share intelligence; it just says that the flow of intelligence "should be improved".

Stressing the "reality" of the world we live in, Irish justice minister Michael McDowell said that intelligence information was the "crown jewels" of member states.

Big push for biometric data

France, Germany and Luxembourg took the lead in pushing for more security measures to be pushed through in Europe.

These include speeding up the timetable for the inclusion of biometric data - such as finger prints - on passports.

The swiftly moving talks which have seen a whole raft of proposals pouring out of the Union are likely to get civil liberties groups up in arms.

If EU leaders approve the draft declaration next week, member states will begin looking into proposals for rules on retaining communication data (from telephones and the internet); at a European register on convictions; at a database on forensic material; and on exchanging information on convictions for terrorist offences.

Minister McDowell dismissed claims that civil liberties will be infringed upon. He said it was a "false dichotomy" and that civil liberties and anti-terrorist measures were two sides of the same coin.

"You can't have civil liberties at the expense of life and limb" he said firmly.