Present and Future of the EU Counter-terrorism policy

Dans le cadre des “Rencontres Européennes de Sciences Po” (RESP)

Lecturer : Gilles de KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
Introduction: Francesca GALLI, FNRS post-doctoral researcher at the Institut d’Etudes Européennes (ULB), Brussels et chargée de cours à Sciences Po

 

In the European Union, over the last ten years Member States have agreed upon a detailed framework for cooperation against terrorism. An EU counter-terrorism coordinator has been appointed to be the public face of such a collective effort. Besides, the adoption of an EU counter-terrorism strategy aimed at ensuring an even and cohesive implementation of the common policy, rather than a crisis-driven response. A distinctive feature of the EU policy was the choice of a judicial and multilateral approach as opposed to the United States’ “war on terror” option. The consequent harmonization of national legislation has fostered the improvement of Member States’ cooperation. However, the emergence of the “lone wolves” or “home-grow terrorism” phenomenon, highlights the limits of the current common response. Would a development of the existing policy be urgently required?

 

This event is organised in the framework of Francesca GALLI’s course “EU criminal justice developments: the case of the counter-terrorism policy”

 

Gilles de KERCHOVE is the European Union Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. He is also Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, at the Free University of Brussels and at the University Faculty Saint Louis (Brussels), where he mainly teaches European Law. In 1985, he became Administrator in the European Commission, within the Directorate-General “Competition”. In 1999, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Convention which drafted the Charter of the fundamental rights of the European Union. He was also Director for Justice and Home Affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, between 1995 and 2007 and assumed different positions in Belgium Administration and Government. He published several books on European law.