Islamist Terror Threat Draws EU, Balkans Together

The European Union and countries of Western Balkans are reinforcing cooperation in the fight against Islamist terrorism, especially in the light of new terrorist threats coming to light in some countries in Western Europe. Countries in the region have also been identified as potential targets.

A senior EU official who deals with anti-terrorism issues confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are countries that rank high on the “risk list” on terms of the number of their citizen leaving to fight in the Middle East.

“We already have 500 people from the Western Balkans who have joined the terrorists in Syria and Iraq. Most are from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo,” the EU official said.  

However, this official said European institutions are generally satisfied with the level of cooperation with security structures in the countries concerned. EU experts say serious work is being done to tighten border controls, intercept suspects, exchange information and identify criminal networks.

“The other field that we are seriously working on is breaking the propaganda of extreme radical imams in the Balkans,” the EU source confirmed.  EU experts are trying to engage the “moderate religious leaders who make up majority of the Muslim population,” he said.

According to EU statistics, 3,000 to 5,000 European citizens have left their countries to join the fighting in Syria or Iraq.

EU officials say that Europeans joining the Islamist wars use the Bulgarian border with Turkey as a transit route to cross to Syria or Iraq. Therefore, according to EU officials, Sofia needs more European help to effectively oversee the frontiers.

Croatia also has a big burden of responsibility because this new EU member state borders Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been identified as a potential threat. The borders of Croatia are also the external borders of the European Union.

Frans Timmeramns, Vice-President of the European Commission, has announced the intention of the Commission to push ahead with a new security strategy. One of the highlights, Timmermans says, will be data protection as well as the possibility of reinforcing the EU’s passport-free Schengen area with special attention to Schengen zone’s outside borders.

The Commission aims to present its “internal security strategy” in May”, Timmermans told journalists recently.

The EU’s anti-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, has also sent member states a new counter-terrorism strategy, prepared following this month’s terrorist attack in Paris. Although sealed, the leaked measures controversially include asking internet companies to hand over encryption keys.

“The Commission should be invited to explore rules obliging Internet and telecommunications companies operating in the EU to provide access of the relevant national authorities to communications (i.e. share encryption keys),” the paper is reported to say. The paper will be discussed at the EU justice and home affairs ministers meeting in Riga, Latvia, on January 29.

Gjeraqina Tuhina is the correspondent for Radio Television of Kosovo in Brussels.