Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) with Gilles de KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator on the fight against terrorism and recent attacks in Member States, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Timothy KIRKHOPE (ECR, UK), Sophia IN'T VELD (ALDE, NL) and Ana GOMES (S&amp;D, PT).

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

fight against terrorism (T)

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

GOMES, Ana (S&D, PT)

DE KERCHOVE, Gilles (BE)

KIRKHOPE, Timothy (ECR, UK)

Exchange of views with Gilles de KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator on the fight against terrorism and recent attacks in Member States: extracts from the meeting

Arrival of Gilles de KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, greetings to LIBE Commitee Chair and other Members, taking the seat.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, We fear that DAESH might step by step move to other modus operandi, car-bombs might be one, and we know how much they&rsquo;ve learned in creating vehicle-bombs and building explosive devices. And there is a concern also on the use of chemical weapons.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, When the caliphate will collapse, how we will handle not hundreds but thousands of fighters who will either want to go in another hotspots? and Libya is probably the most obvious one, but there are many other places where they can hide, but also want to get back home.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, The vulnerability of the Syrian refugee diaspora; we&rsquo;ve seen in some member states and in particular in Germany, Salafist organisations trying to recruit in refugee camps. And it&rsquo;s not a coincidence, because the more they will compromise the refugees the more it will trigger the vicious circle of Islamophobia, radicalisation and again.

SOUNDBITE (English), Timothy KIRKHOPE (ECR, UK), I&rsquo;m clearly very pleased that the new Commissioner for the security Union is British, Sir Julian King and I&rsquo;d like to ask him how does he see his role and the work under his control, working in coordination with Sir Julian in his role as Commissioner.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, It&rsquo;s obvious we will work extremely well together, as I said to Julian King, probably my hope is to make me redundant so that the Commission has built its expertise and the European External Action Service too, so that there is no need to have a Counter-Terrorism coordinator anymore.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), Where are we on the implementation of the European PNR directive six months after its adoption? I was told by Commissioner Kind that so far one or two countries have actually started the implementation and that seems to be in real contrast with the pressure that we felt when we had to adopt the directive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ana GOMES (S&amp;D, PT), Is there a programme for instance to train European Imams and actually not rely on those exported by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others? And actually a plan to involve our Muslim communities in this plan against radicalisation and against extreme violence?

SOUNDBITE (English), Gilles DE KERCHOVE, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Training of Imam? Yes, we should maybe help create an environment conducive to the development of European Islam and that could start with bringing Islamic studies in universities in many places, I fully agree on that, but that has a cost and we have to discuss this as well.