Paris, 14 June, 2005 – The Assembly has urged the European Union (EU) to pool its resources in the fight against terrorism to “defend our society and democratic freedom,” and to carry out an “in-depth strategic review to adapt security instruments”.
 
Presenting a Defence Committee report, which was adopted by the Assembly on Tuesday, Ignacio Cosido Gutierrez (Spain/Federated Group) said “we need to adopt a common response to face up to the threat”. Terrorists are “trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD). If we don’t act, it will be just a matter of time before they acquire access to that kind of weapon. We must avoid that at all costs.” The EU needs “a wide-ranging political consensus with broad support from society as a whole.”
 
The report: “The fight against international terrorism: defence aspects”, argues that intelligence is the “most effective weapon in states’ armoury for fighting terrorism”. Infiltration of terrorist networks by secret services is “the only effective way of preventing further attack or of breaking up terrorist networks”. This means reinforcing domestic intelligence services, integrating better the information gathered by the various agencies, and more cooperation within the EU.
 
EU cooperation in the police and judicial spheres “continues to be satisfactory,” but needs to be strengthened in the military sphere so that the “European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) can make a more effective contribution to the fight against terrorism,” the report said. This cooperation must also “have a transatlantic dimension.”
 
The armed forces “can and must play an important part in the fight against terrorism,” the report said. The fact that the army “is not the sole or main instrument (…) does not mean that counter-terrorism should not be a core element of our nations” defence policies.”