Europe prepares for the aftermath

Terrorism is a familiar story to Europeans but the attack on the United States is still disrupting their lives, as CATHERINE FIELD reports from Paris.

Europe is enhancing security at key sites and mulling tough new anti-terrorism laws - some of which worry civil rights advocates - as it braces for the United States' reply to last week's attacks on New York and Washington.

The mood in Europe is tense, but not panicky, and public concern seems focused more on the risk of overreaction by the Pentagon rather than on any further threat from the chief suspect, Osama bin Laden.

Europeans are far more used than Americans to terrorist alerts. Over the past three decades, European cities have been a theatre for bombings and shootings by Middle Eastern groups, home-grown ultra-leftists and local ethnic and religious groups, from Northern Ireland and Spain's Basque country to Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Turkey.

That is not to say that Europeans are at all blase about what happened in the US. They, too, were shocked and frightened at the carnage, and governments have rushed to reassure them with an extraordinary and highly visible show of security.

In France, the long-standing anti-terrorist plan Vigipirate has been invoked for the third time in six years, with a mass deployment of general and riot police, supported by troops.

Security checks at airports are now rigorous. Passengers on a flight to the US this week waited in their parked plane at Roissy Airport for two hours, while their identities were faxed to the US and checked by the FBI.

Steel barriers to thwart car bombs or suicide attackers have been set up around the entrance to government buildings, post offices, churches and even schools, while in train and metro stations, litter bins have been sealed or replaced by transparent plastic bags to prevent them from being used as a dump for package bombs.

Posters appealing for vigilance have been put up in train carriages and similar loudspeaker announcements are made in English and French at stations every 10 minutes or so.

Indeed, the police force is being so stretched by security duty that Paris has had to scrap its participation in the International Car-Free Day this Saturday, an eagerly awaited festival in which the centre of the city would have been turned into a party zone for pedestrians for the day. No one was available to work on traffic diversion.

Security firms are suddenly finding themselves inundated with work, especially to guard tall buildings.

"We received so many calls from worried companies on September 11 asking us to improve protection that we had to set up a crisis management unit that night to try to figure out a way to meet demand," said Patrice Buccihianeri, logistical director of Paris-based security firm ASR.

Some Europeans - but clearly only a small minority - are adopting a siege mentality. Petrol stations have reported a slight increase in sales, attributed to worried drivers topping up their tanks, and supermarkets say people are buying more basic products, such as flour, bread and bottled water, but there is no sign of any panic buying. Cinema, theatre and restaurant attendances have plummeted, as have tourist numbers.

Regardless of how the crisis unfolds, far-reaching changes in European lives seem inevitable. Sudden awareness of the West's vulnerability is prompting governments to strengthen security laws and permit closer official scrutiny in private affairs.

The European Union looks set to push through, at unprecedented speed, 37 separate measures, which will include a harmonised extradition procedure and a standard definition of terrorism, a term that is notoriously difficult to define and, indeed, does not exist in the statute books of several European countries.

This could be followed by an EU-wide law to force internet service providers and telephone companies to keep all phone, fax, e-mail and internet records for an indefinite period in case they are needed for criminal investigations.

Germany will soon pass measures to outlaw Islamic organisations that abuse their religious status, as well as steps to stem the flow of funds to extremists operating in that country.

Britain, which is the most vociferous supporter of the US in Europe, is taking an exceptionally tough line. It is looking at introducing a supposedly voluntary "citizen's access card" - an identity card, which until now has been taboo - and is likely to pass new laws to open up bank accounts to official inspection to prevent money laundering.

Such reflexes are beginning to stir objections among civil libertarians.

Privacy International, a London-based human rights watchdog, has described US and British proposals on wiretapping powers, restrictions on encryption, creation of national ID cards, increased video surveillance and the use of face recognition technologies as "restrictive".

Others go further, saying tougher laws that erode cherished freedoms are rarely repealed swiftly and, in any case, are no substitute for sound detective work.

"Yielding to panic and further reducing freedoms is a sure sign that the terrorists have won," says Clement Schouler, of the French Association of Magistrates.

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