EU to Move Quickly on Terrorism Plan

The leaders of the European Union delivered a strong, though qualified, endorsement Friday of a potential U.S. military strike against alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

At an emergency summit protected by a security cordon that brought Belgium’s capital to a stop, the leaders of the 15 EU nations ordered rapid action on a proposed counter-terrorism campaign that could dramatically change and unify Europe’s police and justice systems.

Not unexpectedly, there were quiet conflicts and voices expressing fear about the impact of potential U.S. retaliation for last week’s carnage in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Britain, France and Germany--the EU’s most powerful nations and those most likely to play a role in a military operation--repeated their staunch support for the Bush administration’s decision to go after Bin Laden and the government of Afghanistan, which provides refuge for the Saudi militant. U.S. officials have named Bin Laden as the prime suspect in last week’s attacks.

French President Jacques Chirac promised that his nation “will not be absent” from what could be “a merciless combat against terrorism.” While acknowledging European concerns that a U.S. retaliation be well planned and proportionate, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said a major use of force would be justified in response to the attacks on the United States.

“Given the scale of the death and destruction, the proportion is likely to be significant,” Straw said. “What happened on Sept. 11 was abhorrent and despicable. And it requires an international coalition to respond.”

After closed-door debate Friday, smaller nations reportedly prevailed and softened language in a final declaration, which does not refer explicitly to military action. There were appeals to avoid the image of a war between the West and Islam and to deploy more police, spies and diplomats as well as troops.

“The center of gravity of the fight against terrorism is not the military,” said Javier Solana, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, as he arrived at the meeting.

Nonetheless, the leaders’ statement was good news for U.S. policymakers rallying a worldwide coalition to their cause.

“An American riposte is legitimate,” the declaration states. “Each according to their means, the member nations of the Union are ready to engage in such actions. The actions must be targeted. The actions can be directed equally against states that aid, support or shelter terrorists.”

The true test of European support will come when and if combat begins. For the moment, the urgent threat has prompted unusually swift action by the EU, an inherently cumbersome institution. It must contend with a babble of languages; the competing demands and ideologies of 15 disparate societies; and a maze of councils, commissions and agencies.

Yet in the same way that Europe has made a common currency an imminent reality, Friday’s summit produced once-unthinkable progress on the hard work of unifying justice and law enforcement systems.

The heads of state set a Dec. 7 deadline for creating a Europe-wide arrest warrant that would do away with extradition--reducing terrorists’ ability to escape across borders and through legal loopholes. Under the new rules, a judge in one country will be able to order the arrest of a suspected terrorist in another and have the person returned for trial without extradition procedures.

The counter-terrorism package approved Friday will also create a Europe-wide definition for the crime of terrorism, establish a list of terrorist organizations and set up task forces to share intelligence information. Europol, a fledgling Europe-wide police force, will take the lead in combating terrorism, with a centralized unit and close cooperation with the United States, the leaders announced.

“The member states will share with Europol, without delay and in a systematic manner, all useful material related to terrorism,” the leaders’ statement says. “In the headquarters of Europol, a team of anti-terrorist specialists will be created without delay.”

All that will take some work. Europol today is little more than a skeleton of a police force, a clearinghouse for law enforcement data. And there might be good reason for veteran terrorist hunters to resist the sharing of information with certain counterparts. Greece, for example, has a poor record: The November 17 organization, a terrorist group, has killed 23 people during the last 26 years with virtual impunity. The same handgun was used in many of the slayings.

The ambitious offensive will not start from scratch, however. The crackdown on Basque terrorists by Spain and France could be a model for Europe-wide cooperation. In the 1990s, France and Spain put an end to years of mutual suspicion and bureaucratic indifference that enabled the chieftains of the ETA, the Basque separatist group, to wage a vicious war on the Spanish government from refuges in southern France. Many of the major blows against the ETA have been the result of close coordination between French and Spanish law enforcement.

France also could serve as a model because it has extensive experience with terrorism.