Letnik 9/2, september 2007 - Slovenska vojska

Ralf Klewin-von Fintel
existing ongoing international cooperation be continued and extended.
Transnational Islamist terrorism can only be effectively combated through close
international cooperation. Terrorist networks have to be countered with a security
network that is equally capable of and willing to react at an international level.
In this context, the United Nations, the EU, the OSCE, the G8 and NATO have
already entered into numerous agreements and taken practical steps. I wish to
flag only a few issues at this juncture related to international cooperation on
combating terrorism, which I think are particularly important. Many of the
measures contained in the European Action Plan have already been implemented.
For example, the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) aviation
security standards were incorporated into an EC Regulation on aviation security.
A European list of terrorists was also created, which is a living document capable
of review and serves as the legal basis for the harmonized freezing of assets
within Europe. The Counter Terrorist Group (CTG), which was established in
autumn 2001, also requires mention. It currently has 29 domestic services from
the 25 EU member states as members, along with those of Switzerland and
Norway. It is tasked with compiling threat assessments on Islamist terrorism,
which are then made available to all of the participating countries 26 . In addition,
Europol was able to set up a team of counter-terrorism experts and intensify
cooperation with the US on data exchange. Eurojust, a European agency for
judicial cooperation, was established to coordinate and support cooperation
between the national judicial authorities at the European level. The individual
European measures I have just mentioned briefly are now being underpinned by
a European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy. This Strategy was last revised
in December 2005, and its success, so to speak, is reviewed biannually – with
adjustments being made where necessary. This document will form the basis
for a new and detailed European Action Plan 27 . The OSCE is also vigorously
implementing the Plan of Action for Combating Terrorism it adopted in 2001.
Germany played a major role in proposing focus areas for preventing and
combating terrorism which envisage increased cooperation with the countries
of Central Asia in the area of police training, the fight against arms trading and
human trafficking, and border protection. In a logical follow-up, a large segment
26
The German Federal Government, Report by the Federal Government at the request of the Parlimentary Control
Panel [Parlamentarisches Kontrollgremium] of January 25, 2006 on Events Relating to the Iraq War and Combating
International Terrorism, Berlin, 2006, p.50.
27
See Council of the EU: The European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Brussels, 2005.
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