Eight days after Madrid train bombings killed more than 200 people, European Union governments agreed in principle today to name an official to co-ordinate anti-terrorism activities across the European Union.
The Minister for Justice, Mr Michael McDowell told a news conference after the one-day emergency meeting in Brussels that the interior and justice ministers had approved "new institutional arrangements by way of the proposal for the appointment of a counter-terrorism coordinator". EU government leaders will make the final decision when they meet next week.
The emergency meeting was called by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern to allow ministers to debate Europe's ability to prevent the sort of carnage caused by the Madrid train blasts. The horrific loss of life has encouraged European governments to improve cooperation on developing and sharing intelligence data on terrorist groups.
"It's not a question of reinventing the wheel in relation to how we deal with terrorism . . . it's a question of making the wheel turn a bit faster," the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said last night.
The main task of an EU "anti-terror tsar" would be to improve co-ordination in anti-terrorist efforts from foreign policy to money laundering and to cross-border police co-operation. The official would report to Mr Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy and security chief. As a first step, the EU planned to beef up an existing intelligence threat assessment cell at the EU headquarters.
The European Commission has chided European governments for dragging their heels in enacting a range of anti-terrorist measures that they approved after the September 11th attacks.
Austria and Belgium said they want a European central intelligence agency - like the CIA in the US - which would analyse and act on information collected by national intelligence services.
However, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggested the secret services of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain - the EU's five biggest members - should assume the leading role.
He said officials from these services will debate the Spanish investigation into the March 11th train bombings at a meeting in Madrid on Monday. They will meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss operational details of cross-border anti-terrorism co-operation, Mr Sarkozy said.
The interior and justice ministers stood in silence for a minute in memory of victims of the Madrid attacks.
Mr Juergen Storbeck, head of Europol, the EU police agency, told the ministers he saw "no immediate threat" of new terrorist attacks but stressed the "need to reinforce intelligence co-operation" for this summer's European football championships in Portugal and the summer Olympics in Athens.
Europe's response to terrorism also figures on the agenda of a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
EU leaders are expected to dramatise their solidarity with Spain next week by invoking a clause that commits EU states to assist any member hit by terrorism, without waiting for it to take legal effect in a stalled EU constitution.
Ireland has drawn up a list of other steps including a tougher drive to cut off suspected sources of terrorist finance, such as charities and informal remittance transfer networks.