Keeping EU-US anti-terror cooperation on track

Date: 03/07/03

By Adam Townsend

DESPITE appearances, it is not all doom and gloom in the tattered transatlantic relationship. European-US counter-terrorist cooperation is healthier than ever. And it could become even stronger if the US decides to engage the EU more - rather than just member state governments.

But, without efforts from both parties, things could easily go the other way. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic worry that their healthy cooperation will soon be affected by the poisonous climate that exists between the heads of government and many of their advisors. And US cooperation at the EU level may not even get off the ground, due to serious differences of opinion.

Police and intelligence services may be the only government organizations that retain the transatlantic solidarity forged after the attacks of 11 September 2001 and shattered by Iraq. After the attacks, all EU member states gave the green light to their spies and policemen to work more closely with their US counterparts.

Intelligence flowed in unprecedented volumes, the funds of suspected terrorists were frozen, joint task forces were set up and the EU allowed CIA and FBI agents to be intimately involved with terrorist investigations on European territory.

The cooperation quickly bore fruit, with the disruption of a number of terrorist cells.

The terror attacks of "9/11" broke the traditional pattern of transatlantic intelligence cooperation. The US and UK intelligence communities have long enjoyed a near-sacred "special relationship", which is much more intimate than either country's relations with European agencies.

After 11 September, EU countries queued up to help the US catch terrorists. Germany's federal police worked closely with the FBI to piece together the activities of the hijackers in Hamburg and Frankfurt.

President Jacques Chirac ordered France's external intelligence agency to improve relations with America to the highest possible degree. And various member states sent officers to a counter-terrorist joint task force command centre on a US warship in the Gulf of Aden.

Surprisingly, relations between the US and German and French law enforcement and intelligence communities have stayed healthy.

Shortly after US President George W. Bush declared the end of hostilities in Iraq, a veteran CIA analyst confessed that collaboration with the French had not only weathered six months of degenerating relations between France and the US, but remained "better than ever before". And last month the joint counter-terrorist task force in the Horn of Africa moved to a base in a former French Foreign Legion post in Djibouti - taking all its European members with it.

Post-11 September, EU governments also directed the resources of the Union into the fight against terrorism. They used the EU's limited powers on internal security matters to implement a long-proposed Europe-wide arrest warrant, draw up a common definition of the crime of terrorism, and draft rules for more joint operations between national police forces.

Governments gave Europol, the fledgling EU police office, extra resources and staffed a new task force with officers from their own national police and intelligence services. British MI6 officers rub shoulders with their Italian, Spanish and Dutch peers, and can exchange information rapidly and plan joint operations more easily.

Thus, although the EU is still only a marginal player when it comes to counter-terrorism, US officials are pondering whether and how to work with EU institutions. The US State Department is thinking about pushing justice and home affairs and homeland security issues to the top of the agenda for the US mission to the EU.

The European Commission's first dedicated justice and home affairs staff member arrives at its Washington delegation in this month, and Europol has posted two officers to Washington to liaise with the US services.

These encouraging steps mask a potentially troubled future. Both sides face an uphill battle to keep relations on track.

Intelligence professionals question how long their collaboration can remain healthy when relations between their political masters are so rocky. French and German intelligence officers are especially worried. But all fear that politicians and anti-Europe figures in the administration will pressure the US to withhold intelligence and shutting the Germans and French out of joint investigations in other parts of the world. US intelligence officers also worry that their French counterparts will become less helpful.

Even if the US continues to work well with national security agencies, it may not find it easy to add an EU dimension to this transatlantic cooperation. US officials express frustration that the EU does not always seem to take terrorism seriously. For example, they point to the EU's failure to list the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Many Europeans, meanwhile, (and Americans) are aghast at the US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, where the government is holding more than 600 people - including three minors - without charge. Bush administration plans to try some prisoners in military tribunals, with powers to impose the death penalty, contribute to the EU's concern that the US is no longer serious about upholding the rule of law.

Europe and the US need each other to counter terrorism. US officers should remind their politicians of the benefits of cooperation with Europe, and not choose this as an area in which to "punish" the Europeans.

The EU and US must build a firewall between the day-to-day cooperation of their security officers and the political disputes at higher levels. The alternative, of throwing cooperation on to the thriving fire of transatlantic turbulence, is potentially suicidal.

• Adam Townsend is a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London.

EU-US co-operation on anti-terror measures is better than ever despite tensions in other policy areas.