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The lecture "TERRORISM AS A SECURITY CHALLENGE FOR THE EU" was organized in cooperation with the Asociación Popular Española de Bélgica and took place in the European Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (KAS) on March 19th 2007. It featured Mr. Gustavo Arístegui - Member of the Spanish Parliament and spokesman in the Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Commission for the Partido Popular- who presented his view on the topic. Mr. Arístegui is the author of the books El islamismo contra el Islam, published in 2004, and La yihad en España (2005).

The European Security Strategy from 2003 has identified Terrorism as a major threat for the EU. After the bombings in Madrid on March 11th 2004, the European Council has considered all terrorist operations as attempts to core values of the European Union. Preventing terrorist groups to have an access to financial supports, federating EU actions as well as leading an efficient border security policy are key elements of the European strategy in its fight against terrorism.

At the beginning of his speech, Gustavo Arístegui pointed out that even if the risks are the same, terrorism had changed. According to him, terrorism has to be compared now to a fight for imposing ideologies. In a way, the terrorist threat has to be taken more seriously than ever before. The European Union has to take into account those changes and be aware that terrorism will keep on evolving. The EU has to develop a flexible policy strategy and be able to adapt quickly to the moving trends of a more and more “imaginative terrorism”. Mr. Arístegui also insisted on the fact that terrorism should not to be mixed with religion - Islam should not to be mixed with Islamism. Terrorism is a consequence of fanatism, (religious) radicalism and intolerance. To act in that way, the European Union has to take into account the claims of terrorists. The last thing to do is to ignore them. Being aware of those claims enables a better and more efficient response to such attacks. Secondly, the European Union has to strike at the root of the problem. Terrorist groups are more and more refined in the way they recruit members. They spread their recruitment to schools, prisons and poor suburbs in European cities. They play on matters such as identity problems, racism and xenophobia and promise a better life (a “promised land” referring to religious texts). People who are being recruited are mostly disconnected from the society and the country they are living in. Thirdly, Gustavo Arístegui stressed the importance of terrorist’s groups´ networks. Networks of major terrorist groups such as Al-Quaida are very complicated and well organized, and include mostly very influential people.

Mr. Arístegui concluded with some suggestions. Prevention is one of the key elements of the battle against terrorism. The European Union has to tackle the recruitment of new terrorists and be aware of the methods and trends of new forms of terrorism. Gustavo Arístegui argued about the fact that terrorist groups are now prepared to steal weapons of mass destruction. The EU has to act in consequence as soon as possible. In the following debate, Mr. Arístegui added that the EU has to develop a multidimensional strategy. EU members have to combine their efforts against common enemies and have to forget former divergence of opinion. Finally, he reminded the importance of working together with non EU-countries, particularly with the United States.