European Parliament Roundtable on Updating Terrorism Laws

European Union parliamentarians met earlier this month for a roundtable that discussed how to update terrorism legislation. Much of the discussion appears to have revolved around the tension between freedom of expression and the desire to clamp down on incitement or "provocation" to terrorism:

"The most contentious issue was the definition of 'public provocation'. The Commission proposes adding three new crimes aimed at covering 'traditional' and modern terrorist methods - recruiting terrorists, training for acts of terrorism and 'public provocation' to commit terrorist offences."

At the meeting, held in Brussels, the Director of Europol, Max-Peter Ratzel, said that in 2007 there were 583 failed, foiled or executed terrorist attacks, most connected to separatist groups in Spain and France. 1,044 people were arrested in Europe in connection with terrorism in 2007.

Europol is the European Union Police Office that works to encourage co-operation between law enforcement agencies in the Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and international organised crime.

Documents from the roundtable are available on the European Parliament website under the heading Round table with National Parliaments on the revision of Framework decision 2002/475/JHA "Combating terrorism" (April 7, 2008).