US embassy cable - 04BRUSSELS1338

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 001338 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/ERA AND S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2014 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, PGOV, PINR, EFIN, KCRM, EUN, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: EU LEADERS PLEDGE ACTION ON TERRORISM, NAME NEW CT 
CZAR 
 
REF: BRUSSELS 1134 
 
Classified By: USEU Poloff Van Reidhead for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
1. (U) In the wake of the Madrid bombings, EU leaders on 
March 25 issued a Declaration on Combating Terrorism 
(available at http://ue.eu.int/).  They pledged to improve 
cooperation, to speed up implementation of agreed EU 
measures, and announced new initiatives to counter the 
terrorist threat.  Among these are a political commitment by 
the EU-25 to abide by a Solidarity Clause (applicable to 
terrorism only) pledging mutual assistance in case of a 
terrorist attack, and appointing an EU CT Coordinator -- the 
Dutchman Gijs de Vries -- to monitor implementation of 
guidelines and ensure more effective cooperation among EU 
member states and institutions.  EU leaders also released, as 
an annex to the Declaration, an updated CT Action Plan which 
among other things calls for the EU to "include effective 
counter-terrorism clauses in all agreements with third 
countries." 
 
2. (C) Most of the elements of the Summit were political 
rather than practical, and the real test for the EU will be 
in their implementation.  By establishing target deadlines 
for implementation on the national level, as well as creating 
the new position of coordinator to help knock heads in 
Brussels, the EU has indicated that they will begin to take 
their post-September 11 commitments more seriously.  We 
should welcome the conclusions, and pledge to work closely 
with de Vries as he seeks to chart this new counter-terrorism 
course in the Brussels bureaucracy.  Post recommends an early 
invitation to de Vries to meet with US counterparts to 
discuss ways the US and EU can cooperate on many of the areas 
mentioned in the declaration where US and EU goals coincide. 
END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
Solidarity Clause 
----------------- 
 
3. (C) In an annex to the CT Declaration, EU leaders made a 
mostly symbolic political commitment to act jointly against 
terrorist acts, "in the spirit of the Solidarity Clause" 
contained in the draft EU Constitutional Treaty.  Member 
states pledged mutual civil-military assistance to prevent 
terrorist attacks and to respond, if asked, in the event of 
an attack on another member state.  Each country remains free 
to choose the most appropriate means to comply with the 
solidarity commitment in the event of attack or imminent 
threat.  (COMMENT: The "clause" applies to terrorism only, 
and represents the natural desire of EU countries to come 
together at times of crisis.  It is not a NATO Article 
Five-type clause, and the Summit declaration offered an "out" 
to both NATO and neutral countries by saying that each state 
would choose the most appropriate means to comply with this 
commitment.  A contact present in the room as notetaker tells 
us that -- contrary to some press reporting -- there was 
no/no discussion by leaders of what the clause would mean in 
practice.  END COMMENT.) 
 
Counter-Terrorism Coordinator 
----------------------------- 
 
4. (C) Based on the need for a comprehensive and strongly 
coordinated approach in response to the terrorism threat, EU 
leaders agreed to establish a new position of 
Counter-Terrorism Coordinator and agreed to a suggestion by 
HR Solana to appoint the Dutchman Gijs de Vries, former State 
Secretary for the Interior and former Dutch representative to 
 
SIPDIS 
the Convention on the Future of Europe.  De Vries, who will 
take up his post as early as March 29, will work under Solana 
(in the Council Secretariat), and will coordinate the work of 
the Council in combating terrorism.  He is mandated to 
provide overview and coordination assistance to the Council, 
and to ensure implementation of Council decisions.  His first 
report to the Council is due in June.  A Council interlocutor 
present for the discussion said that EU leaders acknowledged 
the need to speed up national implementation of EU CT 
measures.  While not formally mandating him to do so, the 
Summit results left open the possibility that de Vries might 
be able to have a limited role assisting national efforts. 
One member state source said that de Vries will play an 
important role as the guardian of member state commitments, 
ensuring that they are carried out, and coming up with 
additional recommendations and ideas to advance CT efforts. 
(COMMENT: Clearly, not all member states will tolerate 
internal meddling from a Brussels coordinator.  De Vries' 
ability to track and/or coordinate member state efforts will 
depend largely on his political sensitivities and ability to 
navigate below the radar of public political scrutiny.  END 
COMMENT.) 
 
Terrorism Finance 
----------------- 
 
5. (SBU) The Declaration is vague on terrorism financing 
(TF), repeating many of the standard EU talking points about 
needing to streamline processes and enhance cooperation.  The 
Declaration specifically tasks the Commission to "consider 
improvements on regulation and transparency of legal 
entities, including charities and alternative remittance 
systems..."  But unlike most of the other measures mandated 
in the Declaration, none of the calls for action on TF are 
linked to a deadline. 
 
The US and NATO 
--------------- 
 
6. (U) The Declaration has language stating the leaders' 
intention to "further strengthen cooperation with the US and 
other partners in countering the threat posed by terrorism." 
The revised Action Plan also calls on the EU to "identify 
areas for closer cooperation in consequence management with 
other international organizations, including NATO." 
 
Linking EU Relations to CT Efforts 
---------------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) In the Declaration, the EU says it will monitor the 
performance of third countries in their CT commitments, and 
suggests that good relations with the EU will depend on 
satisfactory progress.  The revised action plan goes a bit 
further in calling on the EU to "Include effective 
counter-terrorism clauses in all agreements with third 
countries."  Interlocutors tell us that no proposals are yet 
on the table for how to do this.  Our prediction is that the 
EU will draft a model clause -- along the lines of the 
nonproliferation clause agreed last year -- for use in 
"mixed" (i.e. Council and Commission) agreements with third 
countries.  Because member states and the Council have no 
direct authority over Commission-only agreements, this Summit 
tasking does not apply to agreements on only economic or 
assistance issues. 
 
Intelligence Sharing 
-------------------- 
 
8. (C) The leaders backed HR Solana's efforts to develop, 
within the EU Council Secretariat, an intelligence capacity 
"on all aspects of the terrorist threat with a view to 
informing EU policy."  Ahern said the leaders tasked Solana 
to report to the June EU Summit on "how intelligence capacity 
can be integrated within the Council structure."  Though 
highlighted in many press reports, this point of the 
Declaration falls short of committing the leaders to 
establish "an EU intelligence agency," as recently suggested 
by Austria (with the backing of Belgium).  Instead, the 
Declaration calls upon member states "to improve mechanisms 
for cooperation and the promotion of effective systematic 
collaboration between police, security and intelligence 
services." 
 
9. (C) According to our interlocutors, Solana told leaders 
that the EU Situation Center would begin (before the June 
Summit) expanding its work on terrorism on the basis of 
existing resources.  SitCen director William Shapcott told us 
Solana already has discussed his ideas with EU Interior 
Ministers: he will ask the June Council session to agree to 
beefing up the Situation Center's analytical capacity, to 
include officials from internal security services in member 
states (currently, only external services are active). 
Shapcott emphasized the Situation Center would concentrate on 
analysis, not operational details, and stressed that there 
were no plans to create a "European CIA." 
 
An EU PNR System? 
----------------- 
10. (SBU) The Declaration contains a helpful paragraph 
inviting "the Commission to bring forward a proposal no later 
than June 2004 for a common EU approach to the use of 
passenger data for border and aviation security and other law 
enforcement purposes."  Apart from its obvious benefit to 
European security, this decision may assist US efforts to 
focus MEPs in the Parliament on approving the recently 
submitted US-EU PNR deal. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
11. (C) Most of the elements of the summit were political 
rather than practical, and the real test for the EU will be 
in their implementation.  By establishing target deadlines 
for implementation on the national level, as well as creating 
the new position of coordinator to help knock heads in 
Brussels, the EU has indicated that they will begin to take 
their post-September 11 commitments more seriously.  We 
should welcome the conclusions, and pledge to work closely 
with de Vries as he seeks to chart this new counter-terrorism 
course in the Brussels bureaucracy.  On PNR, biometrics, 
transport security, consequence management, terrorist 
financing, and terrorism prevention, this Summit offers an 
opportunity to enrich our cooperation with the EU and perhaps 
make forward progress in areas where we have had difficulties 
in the past.  Post recommends and early invitation to de 
Vries to coordinate ways the US and EU can cooperate on the 
areas mentioned in the declaration where U.S. and EU goals 
coincide. 
 
SCHNABEL