This is the EU’s new agenda to ramp up anti-terrorism actions

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed stepping up the European Union’s (EU) fight against terrorism and violent extremism by, among others, strengthening the role of security forces.

It proposed reinforcing the mandate of Europol, the EU Agency for law enforcement cooperation, to allow it to issue warnings about “foreign fighters” to member states, as part of its new strategy to combat radical groups.

“The recent spate of attacks on European soil have served as a sharp reminder that terrorism remains real and present danger and as this threat evolves, so too must our cooperation to counter it,” the commission said in a statement announcing the new Counter-Terrorism Agenda for the EU.

Building on the work done in recent years, the agenda seeks to support member states in better anticipating, preventing, protecting and responding to the terrorist threat.

“With today’s Counter-Terrorism Agenda, we are boosting experts’ ability to anticipate new threats, we are helping local communities to prevent radicalization, we are giving cities the means to protect open public spaces through good design and we are ensuring that we can respond quickly and more efficiently to attacks and attempted attacks,” Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said.