Fighting terrorism: Council approves conclusions on future priorities for countering terrorism

Terrorism and violent extremism continue to pose a significant threat to the EU and its member states. Today the Council approved the first of two sets of conclusions on strengthening joint counterterrorism efforts. The conclusions set strategic goals and highlight key areas where increased efforts are needed to enhance operational efficiency. The aim of the conclusions is to shape EU counterterrorism policies and measures for the next five years.

To further enhance counterterrorism measures, on 16 December 2024 the Council will approve conclusions on reinforcing external-internal connections in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

The fight against terrorism in the EU is a joint effort of all member states. From information sharing and border security to hindering terrorist financing and preventing radicalisation, EU countries have a range of common tools at their disposal to keep citizens safe.

Sándor Pintér, Hungarian Minister for Home Affairs

In the Council conclusions, member states note that global unrest has heightened the terrorism threat level in some member states. Those external conflicts have contributed to intensifying radicalisation and social polarisation across the Union, which may in turn potentially lead to terrorism and violent extremism.

The Council calls on member states to enhance their preparedness and response capabilities in order to prevent terrorist and violent extremist attacks. The conclusions highlight three key areas of intervention for strengthening counterterrorism efforts: information exchange; detecting and preventing the infiltration of persons posing a terrorist threat; and countering terrorism and violent extremism online.

In order to detect and prevent the infiltration of persons posing a security threat, the Council invites member states to continue inserting alerts based on return decisions in the Schengen Information System, and calls on the Commission and member states to operationalise the effective return of persons posing a security threat.

As the digital sphere has increasingly become a breeding ground for radicalisation, the Council invites the Commission to take further steps to address the challenges posed by non-compliant online platforms, by strictly enforcing the Digital Services Act.

Next steps

In accordance with his mandate, the EU counterterrorism coordinator is tasked with following up the implementation of these Council conclusions.

The political guidelines of the European Commission foresee the development of a new EU agenda for preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

Background

National security remains the sole responsibility of member states, but member states need to work together to effectively prevent terrorist attacks and ensure the security of citizens.

EU measures to tackle terrorism include the establishment of the Schengen Information System to improve information flows between countries, rules on the transfer and processing of personal data provided by air passengers and the creation of the European counterterrorism centre at Europol. A new anti-money laundering law was adopted in 2024 to protect EU citizens against terrorist financing. In addition, based on an EU regulation from 2022, terrorist content must be taken down within one hour after it is identified online.

The EU Counterterrorism Coordinator, whose role was established in 2004 following the Madrid terrorist attacks, plays a key role in coordinating counterterrorism work within the EU and reinforcing the EU’s counterterrorism relations with third countries.