ROME: France has proposed tough new rules to fight jihadist ideology and tighten Europe’s external borders in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Vienna and Nice.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin floated the idea of introducing a “European Act” during a bilateral meeting in Rome with his Italian ministerial counterpart Luciana Lamorgese.
He also called for measures to block websites supporting jihad so that police investigations and checks could be carried out.
“The fight against terrorism is a battle against ideology, not against religion or Islam, which we fully respect,” Darmanin told a press conference.
He said that all of Europe “must be involved in this battle” and urged for the Schengen treaty on freedom of movement within the EU to be “re-established and revised.”
The French minister added: “It is not about blocking the free circulation to European citizens but to review the system of control on external borders.”
He said that any revision of the Schengen pact should include “a common governance” of the EU ministers of the interior, similar to one already existing among finance ministers.
Darmanin added that terrorism was “a European problem. France cannot tackle it alone. This is why we need a European Act, and we are working on it.”
He pointed out that the war on terrorism was against “the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism” and not a religion. “Being Muslim and European is not incompatible. For 30 years in France terrorist acts have been committed in the name of Islamism, and we have to stop this.”
Darmanin passed on to the Italian government “the gratitude of (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron and of the French institutions” for the cooperation of Italian investigators following the attack in Nice.
Nice attacker, Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian who killed a man and two women at a church in the southern French city, had landed on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa at the end of September and travelled from there to France at the beginning of October.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has asked the EU to consider a US-style Patriot Act to boost anti-terrorism efforts.
Lamorgese said that Italy and France had agreed that mixed brigades formed by police from both countries would control borders between the two nations for the next six months. “Free movement is guaranteed, our fight is against terrorism and illegal immigration,” she added.
She also revealed that Italian ships and planes would be patrolling international waters off Tunisia to report to authorities in the North African country any departures of boats or dinghies carrying illegal migrants trying to reach Lampedusa and Sicily.
“This plan includes the deploying of naval and air assets that can warn the Tunisian coastguard of departures so that the Tunisian authorities can intervene, in their total autonomy. Of course, for this plan to be operational a full adhesion of Tunisia will be necessary,” Lamorgese added.
