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European Union foreign ministers on Monday discussed setting up a new network of European security agents abroad, as they sought a united response to the threat from militant Islamists following the attacks in Paris on 7 January.

The meeting aimed to lay the groundwork for an EU leaders summit on 12-13 February in Brussels, which will cement the bloc's strategy to deal with young European Muslims heading to Middle East war zones or returning radicalised from the region.

New methods of intelligence sharing should be found within the 28-member bloc, ministers agreed.

One idea is to place European security officials in EU overseas missions to collect and share information on the terrorism threat.

"It is a matter of having people on the ground that can liaise at the same level with security agents in the countries where we have delegations," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told a news conference.

She said that the EU would also institute security attachs within its foreign delegations to help the exchange of information between member states. She denied that the move signaled the creation of an embryonic EU espionage agency.

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Priorities also include a crackdown on arms trafficking, support for police in the Middle East and North Africa, stopping EU citizens leaving to fight abroad, and curbing radical Islam on the Internet to prevent them bringing violence back home.

>> Read: Ministers look to strip online jihads glamour

In the next few days, interior ministers will consider a plan to withdraw the travel documents of EU citizens looking to go to Syria or Iraq, or of those seen as a threat in Europe.

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EU considers 'security agents' to counter terrorism

European governments pledged to exchange more intelligence with Arab states as they responded to the terrorism threat from Islamist extremists following this months attacks in France.

European Union foreign ministers agreed to embed security officials in EU delegations across the Arab world and work on counterterrorism projects with countries including Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and the Gulf states.

The goal is to share information and intelligence information not only within the European Union but also with other countries around us, EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters after the ministers met in Brussels Monday. She said the security officials wouldnt be an embryonic spy service.

European governments sought to coordinate measures to stamp out radicalism at home and abroad in the wake of the rampage by Islamist extremists in France that left 17 dead, including cartoonists at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher grocery store, and police.

Another meeting, in London on Jan. 22 and involving more than 20 countries including the U.S. and Arab states, will focus on defeating Islamic State, the radical group that dominates large areas of Syria and Iraq. EU interior ministers meet a week later in Riga, Latvia, to consider how to track suspects throughout the EU and clamp down on the use of social media as a recruiting tool.

What these terrorists represent is the perversion of a major religion, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said in an interview with CBS TV during a visit to Washington last week. Theyre not its true adherents, they are fanatics whove attached themselves to a death cult.

European terrorists have been inspired by Islamic State and there is increasing concern about the influence returning fighters are having on domestic extremists. Belgian prosecutors said some members of a terror cell broken up last week in the eastern town of Verviers had returned from fighting in Syria. Two people were killed by officers in that raid.

Belgium has the highest number of jihadis per capita among western European countries, data from the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization show. The government estimates that, as of October, 350 Belgian nationals had traveled to Syria and Iraq since violence escalated there almost four years ago and more than 70 of them have returned.

A group of about 30 British women based in northern Syria has been using social-media accounts to recruit extremists to carry out attacks in Britain, the Observer newspaper reported, citing research by the ICRS.

Belgium is deploying as many as 300 soldiers to protect potential targets such as Jewish neighborhoods, EU institutions and embassies. The European Commission, the EU executive in Brussels, raised its alert level one step to yellow -- the third-highest level -- while the government of Belgium has its alert at the second-highest level for police installations across the country.

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European Countries Prepare Response to Islamist Terror

Published January 19, 2015

Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil Al-Araby, left, exchanges booklets with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini after signing a cooperation agreement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. The European Union is calling for an anti-terror alliance with Arab countries to boost cooperation and information sharing in the wake of deadly attacks and arrests across Europe linked to foreign fighters. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)(The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS The European Union on Monday called for an anti-terror alliance with Arab countries to boost cooperation and information-sharing in the wake of deadly attacks and arrests across Europe.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the 28-nation bloc plans to deploy security attaches with certain delegations to promote better anti-terror contacts with authorities in countries in the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa.

The EU also wants to help certain countries build the capacity to combat terrorism and improve inter-cultural understanding with Muslims, in part by developing Arabic language skills.

"We need an alliance. We need to strengthen our way of cooperating together," Mogherini told reporters as the bloc's foreign ministers met Brussels.

Some ministers emphasized the importance of working with Muslim countries, rather than blaming them for the problem of foreign fighters.

Muslim nations "will continue to be in the front line, and we have to work closely with them to protect both those countries and the European Union countries," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

Mogherini and some ministers also urged the European parliament to move forward on sharing airline passenger information between EU countries.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said the police raids in his country last week to break up a suspected network of foreign fighters demonstrated that information-sharing is the key to success.

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EU calls for anti-terror alliance with Arab countries after deadly attacks, raids in Europe

Published January 19, 2015

EU Counter-Terrorism chief Gilles de Kerkhove, left, gestures while speaking with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, center, during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. The European Union is calling for an anti-terror alliance with Arab countries to boost cooperation and information sharing in the wake of deadly attacks and arrests across Europe linked to foreign fighters. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)(The Associated Press)

European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, center, speaks with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, right, during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. The European Union is calling for an anti-terror alliance with Arab countries to boost cooperation and information sharing in the wake of deadly attacks and arrests across Europe linked to foreign fighters. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)(The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS The European Union foreign policy chief says the bloc is launching an appeal against last month's EU court ruling that ordered the Palestinian group Hamas removed from its terror list for technical reasons.

Federica Mogherini said Monday the council of ministers will challenge some of the court's finding and consider future action to avoid similar annulments.

Hamas was put on the EU terrorist list as part of broader measures to fight terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and its funds were frozen. Hamas has long contested the classification.

An EU high court on Dec. 17 said the reason for listing it was based too much on media and Internet reports, and not enough on acts examined by competent authorities.

Originally posted here:
European Union appeals Hamas court ruling that took group off terror list on technicalities

By Bryan McManus ,AFP January20,2015,12:00amTWN

As Belgian troops patrolled the streets in the EU headquarters Brussels and other cities, the focus for the 28-nation European Union was how to prevent battle-hardened citizens returning home from the Syria and Iraq.

The Arab League's secretary general was at the talks, which are being held less than two weeks after three French gunmen who caused carnage in Paris claimed they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said: Terrorism and terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance.

We need to strengthen our way of cooperating together, first of all with Arab countries but also internally, she told reporters. The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris but also spreading in many other parts of the world.

Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi said that every country in the world is suffering from terrorism and recalled that the pan-Arab body had called in September for a global struggle.

It is not just a military or security issue, it covers the intellectual, cultural, media and religious spheres and that is what we are trying to get, he said.

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European Union seeks Muslim anti-terror help after Paris terror attacks