EUROPE scrambled Monday to forge a common response to terrorism after the massacre in Madrid, which has forced the issue to the top of the agenda for an EU summit next week.
But questions remain over whether the bloc can match its anti-terrorism rhetoric with action, with observers pointing to slow progress since a similar initiative in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
After a silent vigil in memory of the 200 victims of Thursday s carnage in the Spanish capital, European Commission chief Romano Prodi said the EU had to go further than an action plan on terrorism agreed in September 2001.
Now we must have more systematic action (at) the next summit, he said. We need an action plan to fight terrorism and show that there is joint action and not just action by individual member states. If as suspected Al-Qaeda was behind the Madrid attacks, Europe faces the nightmare scenario of an ultra-committed, supremely well-organized foe with no apparent goal other than death and destruction on a huge scale.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at the weekend that the EU should appoint an anti-terrorism supremo dubbed an EU Mr. Terrorism by some - to coordinate security measures in the face of threats of further attacks.
But critics say that the EU already has the means to fight terrorism and simply needs the political will.
Graham Watson, head of the Liberal Democratic group in the EU parliament, expressed doubts over whether setting up new agencies and new jobs and grand new titles for people is the most practical immediate way forwards. But he agreed that the EU needs to fundamentally change its strategy in fighting terrorism after the Madrid attacks, to switch focus from separatist threats posed by groups such as the Irish Republican Army and the Basque group ETA.
Al-Qaeda has changed that forever, Watson said.
Tensions have already emerged in the EU over the Madrid attacks.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said the outgoing Spanish government was slow to inform Berlin about the possible involvement of Al-Qaeda because of its initial insistence that Basque separatist outfit ETA was to blame.
At Schily s suggestion, the EU s Irish presidency has called an emergency meeting of interior ministers for Friday to evaluate the threat.
The attacks in Madrid were an attack against the very values on which the Union is founded, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said in a statement, pledging to present a raft of proposals at the March 25-26 summit.
The EU s spring summit is traditionally focused on economic affairs, and this one was expected to be a relatively low-key affair. Madrid has changed all that.
Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes also announced in Madrid that a high-level meeting of EU anti-terrorist services would take place in the Spanish capital in the coming days to pool resources, exchange information and discuss future planning.
But the EU s room for action is limited by the extent to which its member states want to act together - and such willingness to cooperate hasn t always been apparent.
At the EU level, action on the ground has been confined to banning groups such as ETA. The EU, under its 2001 action plan, has also commissioned joint work on tracking down extremists financial networks.
Post-Madrid, among the suggestions is a new anti-terrorism commissioner to coordinate EU states attempts to prevent attacks and to track down the perpetrators.
But the EU already has a police organization, Europol, which has looked rather marginal in recent events.
Europol was not given a role in the investigation when a spate of letter bombs were sent to EU officials, including Prodi, at the end of last year, despite the fact that its own chief was among those targeted.
Europol must be given a much higher profile now, Prodi s spokesman Reijo Kemppinen told reporters.
