'Our September 11' jolts Europe awake

By CATHERINE FIELD Herald correspondent

PARIS - Litter bins have been sealed in the Metro, flint-eyed security guards patrol the corridors and platforms, and every five minutes or so loudspeakers blare out, urging travellers to be alert for suspect packages.

Heightened vigilance is being enforced not only in Paris but across Europe after the bombings that killed 200 commuters in Madrid and shattered the continent's cosy sense of immunity from terrorism.

Now, as many newspapers have observed, last week's bloodbath was "our September 11", and governments across Europe have been jolted.

The Madrid attacks occurred as the European Union was preparing to review an "action plan" against terrorism that it set in place after the September 11, 2001, attacks against America.

Foreign ministers were scheduled to meet next Tuesday and Wednesday to draft proposals for an EU summit in Brussels on March 25 and 26 that will assess the war on terrorism.

A meeting of EU interior and justice ministers scheduled for March 30 will now take place on Saturday.

The drive for action comes from the evidence that the carnage may be the work of al Qaeda - not the Basque separatist group ETA, as Spain's conservative Government was so swift to claim, and for which it was punished in Monday's elections.

But what can be done and how keen are European countries to do something?

A source at the European Commission in Brussels said the likely outcome of the meetings would be a strengthening of the three-pronged post-September 11 plan - better co-operation between national police forces, better co-operation between national judiciaries over access to prisoners and extradition, and working together on identifying the financing of terrorist groups.

"Now we must have more systematic action at the next summit," said European Commission chief Romano Prodi.

"We need an action plan to fight terrorism and show that there is joint action, not just action by individual member states."

Among the measures proposed are a solidarity clause requiring EU countries to come to the assistance of each other in response to threats from terrorist and non-state entities, the appointment of a "security tsar" to improve co-operation between the EU and other countries and to streamline counter-terrorism initiatives, and improved co-ordination with the United Nations in the fight against terror.

"The EU has already put in place a series of measures to combat terrorism," a commission spokesman said.

"What we need now is swift action to ensure that all of them are turned into reality."

By far the biggest hurdle is the sharing of information. No country has a monopoly on turf battles between its various investigative branches, but the problem of pooling knowledge can become acute when it comes to sharing tips with forces from other countries.

"Too many petty jealousies persist among [the national] intelligence services about sharing information," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at the weekend.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily said his country "would certainly have liked to have been informed earlier of certain details" known by Spain about the Madrid bombings. He did not elaborate.

Some European commentators believe that Spain, a member of the pro-United States coalition in Iraq, made itself a target for al Qaeda.

Countries that opposed the Iraq war, such as France, Germany and Greece, or neutrals, such as Austria, Finland and Ireland, feel less threatened, according to this theory.

They thus may feel less committed to doing something about it, especially if to do so will make them a target.

If so, says security expert Gary Samore at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, that confidence is a delusion, for all European nations are vulnerable.

Germany has troops in Afghanistan, he notes, and France has supported the anti-Islamist Government in Algeria and has been verbally attacked by Muslim fanatics for banning the wearing of Islamic headscarfs in state schools.

Greece, too, is a potential target for a big terrorist attack, for Athens will host the Olympic Games from August 13 to 29.

And Portugal has the Euro 2004 tournament, the biggest prize in European football, from June 12.

A path taken by France and being looked at closely by others is to speed the way information is shared.

Now, evidence is swapped either informally, with all the benefits and disadvantages this entails, or formally, through a bilateral procedure called the international rogatory commission.

A new law in France will enable French investigators to hand over evidence or provide access to witnesses to another country if its own police are inquiring into the same case, thus bypassing many layers of bureaucracy.

Another idea, put forward by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, is for an "EU intelligence centre" that would analyse information from national police, security forces and intelligence services, and from Europol, the European equivalent of Interpol. The centre would then tip off governments if a terrorist attack was in the offing.

Grand cross-border schemes can and do work in the EU - the creation of the single currency, the euro, is one big example - but national security remains a holdout, a virtually impregnable cultural fortress.

When it comes to handing over information that can compromise sources or be politically delicate, contributions to the common pot are often patchy, incomplete or inconsistent.

"It's an area of variable geometry," says a French expert.

He notes that France and Spain are supposed to have close co-operation on terrorism, demonstrated by last year's agreement, unprecedented in Europe, to set up joint teams of investigators to probe matters of joint interest.

Despite this, the expert says, the Spanish co-operation with France has been great when it comes to ETA, the outgoing Government's bugbear - but has often been wretched when it comes to investigating Islamic extremists in Spain who are wanted for questioning in France.