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15 March 2005
GRANADA- Interior ministers from five leading EU states announced the creation of an information exchange network on suspects linked to international terrorism.
They also agreed a new system alerting them to the theft of explosives and other sensitive material.
“We are going to exchange information on persons linked to international terrorism and who are under reasonable suspicion … for example, people who have attended jihadist (Muslim extremist) training camps,” Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio said.
Alonso made the announcement as he and his G5 colleagues from Britain, France, Germany and Italy wound down 24 hours of talks in this southern Spanish city.
“The information the police of the five countries will share includes data pertaining to people and activities suspected of links to terrorism,” Alonso added.
Furthermore, the G5 countries decided to make available to their respective crime-fighting forces information deemed useful to help fight organised crime in general.
“The principle is that each country will be assured of immediately obtaining the information it requires and which another country possesses, Alonso said.
Such information will include, for example, the fabrication of false identity papers, stolen cars, digital fingerprint databases and results of DNA tests, as well as missing persons and unidentified corpses.
The ministers failed, however, to draw up a common legal framework to facilitate the expulsion of suspected terrorists who have not committed a crime in any of the five countries.
“We found that each country already has a sufficient democratic legal framework,” Alonso said.
On Monday, Alonso said the forum would show the EU’s determination to act decisively against the threat of terrorism and organised crime by improving the exchange of information between EU police forces- of particular concern to many governments in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The meeting came as police along Spain’s Costa del Sol on the Mediterranean were investigating a multi-million-dollar international money-laundering network following dozens of arrests late last week.
Alonso dubbed money laundering the “spinal cord” of organised crime.
G5 meetings are informal. The decisions taken by the forum are not legally
binding but nonetheless serve as a yardstick for EU states in general.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news