Riigikogu committee: Countries’ sharing information will help reduce threat of terrorism
The Riigikogu’s European Union Affairs Committee after discussing the current state of the EU’s internal security stated on Friday that sharing more information among member states would help reduce the threat of terrorism.
Vice chairman of the committee, Jaak Madison (EKRE), said that European security threats could be minimized by improving information exchange via e-solutions, and that Estonia could share its experiences in this field with other countries.
According to Madison, one problem is that although the movement of people is checked in air transport, controls of overland movement are insufficient. Madison said that more random checks should be made at internal borders of the EU. In his opinion, Estonia should pay more attention to checks at its external borders to block the transit of foreign fighters through its territory.
Committee member Kalle Palling (Reform) added that another source of threats was that if refugees needed to wait in refugee camps for a long time and did not receive help, they could be recruited by terrorist groups. The EU should invest in healthcare systems, job creation measures, and education in the countries that have accepted refugees to prevent the rise of another generation of child fighters.
The Interior Ministry’s deputy secretary general for internal security, Erkki Koort, was present to answer the committee’s questions. Koort stated that EU member states, Estonia among them, had been used as transit countries by individuals heading to Syria as foreign fighters.
Koort said he didn’t see the threat of radicalization in Estonia, as the community that could endanger public order and security was small. However, Estonia’s EU presidency would increase the country’s visibility and raise the threat of terrorism as well, he added.
E-solutions are one way to better capture terrorism suspects, Koort said, singling out two separate measures, namely checking air travellers’ data, and digitization of hotel accommodation forms. This would help identify patterns of terrorist groups, and would also work in the fight against drug trafficking.
The EU's IT agency, based in Estonia, deals with the visa register, but data exchange is not taking place with all member states yet. According to Koort, it is important to give the agency a broader mandate to increase the utilization of existing systems as well as the interaction of different information systems. Another security enhancement aim is the creation of a border management system that would operate together with that of customs in the future.
Koort also stressed the importance of combating the unlawful arms trade in Ukraine. “The war in the Western Balkans ended 16 years ago, but the European Union is still dealing with the problems of illegal arms trading there. Since the war in Ukraine continues, even more illegal weapons are moving there,” he said, adding that the eradication of the arms trade that posed a threat to European security was one of the important directions of the forthcoming Estonian presidency of the EU.
According to data of Europol, 34 terrorist attacks took place in Europe last year, compared to 17 a year earlier.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS