Debate: Fighting terrorism and the right to freedom of expression and education
Date: WEDNESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2020
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

Let’s be clear: these were attacks on our European values, on fundamental rights and freedoms. Samuel Paty taught history, geography and civics. His brutal murder was a direct attack on our values, rights and freedoms – the freedom of expression and information, the right to education, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. We need to unite and show strong solidarity as a Union. No Member State can or should face this threat alone. We need to unite as a society. We need to show that our values are unbreakable and that we cannot be divided on this, and we need to do more to protect our citizens, our societies and our values. The Vienna attack shows the need to stop illegal firearms. Member States must urgently implement the Firearms Directive. Before the summer, we launched an action plan against firearms trafficking. We are working closely with Western Balkans partners to fight the smuggling of illegal guns. And we need to register all known foreign terrorist fighters in the Schengen Information System so that we can detect them when they try to cross EU borders. The Vienna attacker tried to buy ammunition in Slovakia. There were contacts in Germany and Switzerland. We need to better share information and to share better information across borders. The Schengen Information System is central here, but so are PNR – passenger name records. They are essential to deter and detect terrorist suspects. Member States should implement the PNR Directive. I am planning to update the Prüm Decision to make it easier for law enforcement to exchange DNA, fingerprints and number plates, and, in future, possibly also photos and police records. I want us, together in the European Union, to move away from ad hoc police cooperation towards systematic police partnership. The Commission has started work on an EU police cooperation code. Better information-sharing also means making sure that IT systems can talk to each other. Member States need to work hard to achieve full interoperability by 2023. Europol is the backbone of European police cooperation and Europol is providing concrete and invaluable support to the French and Austrian authorities as we speak. Already this year, I will propose a reinforced mandate for Europol so it can do an even better job at fighting crime and terror. The recent attackers struck in a church in Nice and in the streets and cafés of Vienna. The Commission is supporting Member States to increase the protection of public spaces. Small actions can make a difference, sometimes between life and death. Last year, a far-right terrorist attacked a synagogue in Halle in Germany. A reinforced door and the security cameras helped to save thousands of lives. The Commission made EUR 12 million available to improve security in places of worship. I’m looking into possibilities to increase this amount. Samuel Paty’s murderer used the internet to identify his horrible crime and afterwards posted pictures of his victim online. The Vienna attacker posted a picture with an AK-47. In one month, in July this year, Europol’s Internet Referral Unit took down 2 000 links to terrorist content, including tutorials on how to carry out an attack. Europol will continue to work with platforms who want to help, but voluntary cooperation is not enough. Member States need to be able to order the removal of terrorist content from any hosting service provider, irrespective of its place of establishment, with EU-wide effects in one hour. I call on this House, this Parliament, for an agreement on the proposed regulation to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online as soon as possible. Besides police intervention, the European Union also invests in the prevention of radicalisation. Prevention is better than cure. It’s difficult to measure terrorist attacks that are prevented, but our police forces, with the help of Europol, work hard every day to do justice. The Radicalisation Awareness Network connects teachers, social workers and community police officers. When they successfully lead someone away from violence, there are seldom big headlines, but the results are spectacular. There are former neo-Nazis, former violent Islamists who now reject violence and help others to do the same. Without the Radicalisation Awareness Network and their job, these people would perhaps still be a danger to society. In a few weeks, on 9 December, I will present our new counter-terrorism agenda. The objective will be to identify and close security gaps in law enforcement cooperation, in the use of technology and information-sharing, to prevent radicalisation, to protect public spaces and to work with Member States, regions, cities and towns and also with key third-country partners. But we also need to look beyond counter-terrorism. Terrorists seek to divide us: to draw a line between ‘them and us’. We can only counter this by offering an inclusive, cohesive society in which everyone has a stake, where there is no ‘them and us’. Later this month I will launch an action plan on integration and inclusion, based on opportunities and obligations. Everyone who has a legal right to be in Europe should have the opportunity to take part in society, a society where everyone is protected by European values and fundamental rights, and where everyone must respect those same values and rights, that includes the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression. Fundamental rights, the EU will defend – that includes also the freedom of religion, but we will never accept violence in the name of religion. Education, culture and sport also have a key role to play in this. Mr President, today is Armistice Day. Europe commemorates the end of the First World War 102 years ago: a war that started with a violent attack – the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. New attacks have such cataclysmic consequences. But this is what we mean by ‘terrorist offence’: international acts which, given their nature or context, may seriously damage a country or an international organisation. This reminds us that our struggle is not a new one. When I grew up, there was the RAF, the Red Brigades, the IRA, ETA. The terrorists change, their causes change and their methods change. What doesn’t change is the fear, the death and the suffering that they bring. What we must do is to be united as a Union and as a society and to do everything we can to oppose them, to fight them, to defeat them.