Plan to coordinate attempts to prevent attacks on VIPs

Date: 27/07/00

By John Shelley

VISITING world leaders and dignitaries would be given a standardised EU danger rating under plans drawn up by the French presidency.

The proposed ranking, based on whether they are likely to be targets for assassination attempts, are designed to encourage national security services to work together to protect VIPs.

Under the plan, the Union would set up a numbered risk scale to make it easier for member states to assess the threat to public figures such as heads of state and prime ministers.

Paris argues the increasing trend for world leaders to visit several EU countries during one trip to Europe make it sensible for national authorities to compare notes on security risks. But it has stopped short of pushing for member states to share more sensitive security information or calling for common rules stipulating how governments should organise their security arrangements.

"We will not be creating a joint 'temperature' but a joint 'thermometer'," states a report outlining its proposals. "The scale would concern assessment alone and not the type of follow-up measures taken by the police in each country, which will remain the responsibility of each country."

The move is designed to provide a simple way for governments to compare risk assessments. Paris has not yet suggested how many marks the scale should include, but diplomats say that if the score was, for example, out of five - with five being a very high risk - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami might have been ranked a three for his trip to Germany earlier this month.

The proposal is the latest in a series of steps designed to coordinate the fight against terrorism at the European level. Under proposals originally tabled by Germany which are due to be implemented shortly, EU governments have already agreed to cooperate in assessing intelligence on planned terrorist attacks.

Member states are likely to welcome the level of cooperation proposed in the French plan, although they will be careful to ensure the details of the scheme do not impinge on their individual responsibility for national security.

"I think the principle of trying to establish a scale of the risk is something people would generally welcome," said one Union diplomat. "But there is a difference between trying to draw up a general assessment of where a threat is going to be and passing on detailed intelligence information."

Under the plan, each member state would retain the right to refuse to disclose its assessment if it considered that doing so would conflict with national interests. The success or otherwise of the scheme would be reviewed, probably after two years.

Paris plans to organise a seminar during its term at the EU helm to hammer out some of the details of the plan.