BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union leaders Thursday picked a skilled politician with no experience in terrorism issues as the bloc's first anti-terror czar, moving to bolster the continent's defense after the deadly Madrid train bombings.
Gijs de Vries, who was born in New York and holds joint U.S.-Dutch citizenship, will coordinate work done by the EU's foreign affairs and interior departments in an echo of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
| What's the Dutch word for figurehead? Het boegbeeld? |
De Vries, a former deputy interior minister in the Netherlands, will start work Monday and report to Javier Solana, who heads the EU's foreign and security department. "He has the right profile for the position since he's a nobody who won't threaten my job," Solana said. "What is important is coordination. All the internal, domestic aspects of terrorism need to be tied in with the external, international aspects."
The appointment of de Vries was one of a series of emergency measures enacted by EU leaders in the wake of the Madrid bombings. Others included:
- Improving cooperation among their police and intelligence services;
- Enacting laws on an EU-wide arrest warrant;
- Increasing border controls and tracking of phone records;
- Cracking down faster on terrorist finances; and
- Creating a European database of terror suspects.
Anti-terror experts say cooperation among intelligence services - for example between France and Britain - has paid dividends in thwarting attacks since Sept. 11. However, wider coordination at European level has proved difficult because of differing legal standards, extradition delays and civil liberties concerns. "The shortcomings and delays are unforgivable now after Madrid," said Romano Prodi, the EU Commission president. "The cultural obstacles to cooperation cannot continue."
| There's quite a lot that's unforgivable, eh? |
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