Commissie doet nieuwe voorstellen voor bestrijding terrorisme (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Commission has proposed a wide-ranging set of security measures for the EU amid a state of nervous tension in the aftermath of the Madrid attacks.

The proposals, which come on the eve of an extraordinary summit of EU justice ministers dealing with the terrorist threat in Europe, were presented on Thursday afternoon to member states.

A senior Commission official said that they marked the beginning of a few days of "extremely intensive discussions on the issue".

The European Commission has put heavy emphasis on intelligence sharing - something member states are still extremely reluctant to do - as well as proposed a host of new measures.

Freezing assets

These include establishing a database of people involved in terrorism and setting up a "new coordination mechanism" for the exchange of information on how terrorists are recruited and what activities they carry out.

Moreover, under the proposals, member states will also no longer be able to use their veto to oppose labelling certain groups as terrorists organisations or freezing their assets.

The decision would instead be taken by qualified majority voting.

At the moment, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, the group suspected of carrying out the Madrid attacks is not on the EU's terrorist list.

On top of this, the Commission is also set to become more forthright about naming the several member states that have not been putting EU anti-terrorism laws into place - a whole raft of these laws were passed by the EU after the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001.

Until now the list has been confidential.

Who should be doing what?

However, one issue that will be have to be overcome is the power play between member states and the European Commission.

Both the Brussels executive and the Irish EU Presidency have produced security proposals.

Similarly, while the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana wants someone from within the Council to co-ordinate anti-terrorism activities, Commission President Romano Prodi has spoken about an anti-terrorism Commissioner.

Justice and home affairs commissioner Antonio Vitorino on Thursday pushed the view to member states that time should not be lost destroying existing institutions and creating new ones.

All of these issues will be discussed at several levels over the coming week. EU justice ministers will kick off on Friday (19 March), foreign ministers will pick up where they left off on Monday, while EU leaders are set to take final concrete decisions at the end of next week.