Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs meet in Brussels due to terrorist attacks

Finnish Minister of the Interior Petteri Orpo today attends a meeting of the EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs, convened urgently on account of the terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday. The Ministers of Home Affairs will give a declaration by which they condemn the terrorist attacks and express their support to Belgium. The declaration will also set out new measures to prevent terrorism and identify certain procedures there already are in place that need to be enforced without delay to prevent similar events from happening again.

One of these is even more efficient exchange of information between the authorities. The recent events have increased and intensified exchange of information within and between countries, but further improvement is needed. Finland considers it important that information moves rapidly and accurately between Member States and from one national authority to another. The arrangements we have in Finland between the police, customs and border guard is a good example of well-functioning and effective cooperation between different authorities.

The ministers also discussed the enforcement of the EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive. The PNR Directive is concerned with the use of data on flight passengers for law enforcement purposes. Finland considers it important that the PNR system is introduced in the Member States as soon as possible after it has been adopted by the European Parliament.

Much good work has been done for more than ten years to address and prevent radicalisation and extremism. In the future even stronger focus on advance prevention is needed to combat terrorism.

Inquiries:

Riikka Rytkönen, Senior Specialist, tel. +358 50 456 0864, [email protected]