EU Adopts Five Year Action Plan to Combat Terrorism, Illegal Immigration and Organized Crime

By Victor Comras

The Commission of the European Union has just issued its new 5 year implementation plan related to securing enhanced �Freedom, Justice and Security" for all its citizens and member states. A large part of the program deals with combating terrorism, illegal immigration and organized crime. It also provides a roadmap for implementing enhanced counter-terrorism cooperation as pledged in last November's "The Hague Program." High on the list of priorities is a �reduction of access to financial and economic resources by terrorists�� The action plan envisages new measures to be adopted by member states and the EU to enhance �transparency of legal entities and information exchange among relevant actors at national, EU and international levels.� No information is yet available on what these new measures will include, but there is some speculation that they will contain expanded requirements on financial institutions to report Suspicious Transactions (So-called STRs -- Suspicous Transaction Reports). There may also be some movement to faciliate information exchanges regarding such STRs.

The EU will also put in place a new �Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network (CTWIN). The center will be charged with assisting the exchange of information between EU member states on shared threats, areas of vulnerability and appropriate measures and strategies to mitigate risks.

The EU also plans to move quickly within the next five years toward fully integrating its new member countries into a common external border control system. This will include integrated management of external borders, a common EU-wide visa policy, as well as the lifting of internal borders of the ten member states that joined in the EU in 2004. The plan also calls for the speedy adoption of a common immigration policy. To this end, the Commission will present an immigration policy plan by the end of this year.

New steps are also planned to combat corruption, organized crime and cross border criminal activity. This includes development of a new EU commitment to expand law enforcement cooperation, judicial cooperation, and cooperation with third countries and international organisations, and to make full use of and further develop Europol and Eurojust.

Past experience has shown that it is much easier for the EU Commission, or for the USG for that matter, to develop plans and strategies, than it is for them to implement them effectively. It is now up to national legislators, the international press and other interested parties to hold the EU, and likewise, the USG, to accomplishing these and similar pledged tasks.

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