US embassy cable - 05BRUSSELS543

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 000543 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, KJUS, PREL, PTER, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: S/CT POPE AND EU CT COORDINATOR DE VRIES REVIEW 
U.S.-EU COOPERATION 
 
 
1.  Summary.  Acting CT Coordinator William Pope met with EU 
CT Coordinator Gijs de Vries to review areas of current and 
potential future cooperation on terrorism.  Asked by de Vries 
where EU Member States should invest more effort, Pope 
responded that Europeans should look carefully at their legal 
structures, including the lenient sentences being given to 
convicted terrorists.  The MS need to look also at small 
Islamic groups which are not assimilating into European 
society.  De Vries noted the obstacles to using intelligence 
information in criminal prosecutions and that the EU was 
interested in working with the U.S. on this.  Regarding CT 
assistance to third countries, de Vries noted the EU intended 
to visit Morocco soon to look at its financial intelligence 
units and police training and is considering a visit to 
Tanzania.  The EU is pleased with the new CT center in 
Jakarta and is open to further assistance to this 
organization.  The EU also wants to explore potential future 
assistance with Pakistan.  He praised U.S.-EU cooperation 
generally, including terrorist finance and judicial/police 
cooperation with Europol and Eurojust.  He especially noted 
EU satisfaction with the Policy Dialogue on Border and 
Transport Security.  De Vries promised to look into the 
Commission competency issue affecting bilateral U.S. Coast 
Guard assessments of international port security in EU Member 
States.  End summary. 
 
2.  In a courtesy call on the EU's CT Coordinator Gijs de 
Vries following their joint appearance at a Brussels 
conference on European Security, Acting CT Coordinator 
William Pope reviewed areas of current and potential future 
cooperation on terrorism.  Asked by de Vries where EU Member 
States should invest more effort, Pope responded that 
Europeans should look carefully at their legal structures, 
including whether CT laws are in place that would enable law 
enforcement to work more effectively, and at the lenient 
sentences being given to convicted terrorists.  The MS need 
to look also at small Islamic groups which are not 
assimilating into European society.  De Vries acknowledged 
the wide divergence in sentencing practices throughout the 
Union, but said there has been some recent harmonization of 
minimum sentences.  The EU needs to do more in terms of 
critical infrastructure protection.  De Vries noted the 
obstacles to using intelligence information in criminal 
prosecutions and said the EU was interested in working with 
the U.S. on this.  "Bringing terrorist criminals to court and 
convicting them is fundamental to winning public support for 
the governments' CT program," de Vries said. 
 
3.  Regarding CT assistance to third countries, de Vries 
noted the EU intended to visit Morocco soon to look at its 
financial intelligence units and police training and is 
considering a visit to Tanzania.  The EU is pleased with the 
new CT center in Jakarta and is open to further assistance to 
this organization.  The EU also wants to explore potential 
additional CT assistance with Pakistan.  Pope observed that 
an area needing attention by the West is education and public 
diplomacy about our CT objectives and motivation.  For 
example, while the majority of the religious schools in 
Pakistan and Indonesia perform well their educational duties, 
there is a minority of these schools where hatred of the West 
is taught with minimal government oversight or restrictions. 
Our assistance programs to third countries should include 
efforts to redress this situation. 
 
4.  De Vries praised U.S.-EU cooperation generally, including 
terrorist finance.  Judicial and police cooperation with 
Europol and Eurojust are underway.  He especially noted EU 
satisfaction with the Policy Dialogue on Border and Transport 
Security.  De Vries asked about the U.S. commitment to 
station an FBI agent at Europol.  USEU/NAS Kerber responded 
that the FBI had opened a suboffice in The Hague on December 
5 to handle both bilateral and Europol business with an 
emphasis on terrorism.  He further noted that the assignment 
of an FBI agent to Europol was predicated on the 
revitalization of its counter terrorism task force.  The 
exact functions of this agent depend on how this unit 
develops. 
 
5.  De Vries asked the U.S. view on efforts within the UN for 
a new convention to define terrorism.  Pope responded that he 
was not hopeful about this initiative.  A universal 
definition of terrorism has not been possible to achieve to 
date.  De Vries commended the recent disaster management 
exercise held in DC by Johns Hopkins and the U. of 
Pittsburgh, and suggested this issue be considered for future 
U.S.-EU cooperation. 
 
6.  Pope raised the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) mandate to assess 
the effectiveness of anti-terrorism measures in international 
ports.  The U.S. has approached several EU Member States to 
do such an assessment and some have indicated an interest in 
a visit by the USCG.  But the EU Commission has said it has 
competency over this issue, thus halting the bilateral 
discussions.  De Vries said he wasn't aware of this issue but 
thought the Commission may indeed be on "solid legal ground" 
with its claim.  He promised to look into the issue and get 
back to the Mission. 
 
This cable has been cleared by S/CT Pope. 
 
Schnabel 
.