9791/04
GdK/kve
1
DG H
EN
COUNCIL OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION
Brussels, 25 May 2004
9791/04
LIMITE
JAI 164
ECOFIN 184
TRANS 206
RELEX 206
ECO 104
PESC 405
COTER 31
COSDP 265
NOTE
from :
EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
to :
COREPER
Subject :
Working structures of the Council in terrorism matters - Options paper
1. At the Coreper lunch on 28 April, the Counter-terrorism Coordinator (CTC) was asked to present
an options paper on working structures in the Council as regards terrorism. This issue had already
been mentioned in a paper from the General Secretariat to Coreper submitted on 8 March 2004, doc
7177/04. In that document, it was stated:
"Coordination problems have been encountered at several levels. The fight against terrorism
is a cross-pillar activity engaging many EU actors and instruments. More overarching
guidance should be provided to the various working parties and players involved. The two
main Council Working Groups (COTER and TWG) are capitals-based and do not feed
sufficiently into the Brussels-based discussion and decision-making processes. The TWG
itself covers only law enforcement cooperation aspects - other JHA elements which might
have an impact on the fight against terrorism such as visa policy, document security and
judicial cooperation are dealt with elsewhere, while other aspects such as transport security,
data protection have yet another different chain of reporting/decision making.
9791/04
GdK/kve
2
DG H
EN
Furthermore, no single committee is responsible for all aspects of terrorism financing. This
situation is in part a reflection of coordination problems at the national level where there can
be differences in agreeing policy objectives to be achieved at the European level. Within the
institutions, there are considerable coordination challenges given the range of actors involved.
Coordination problems have also emerged between first and second pillars, for example in
relation to programming."
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