TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, voiced deep concern over the spread of terrorism to the Western European country, saying that recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels demonstrated how serious the threat is.
“The recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels once again showed the seriousness of the threat of terror,” Wolfgang Bosbach from the conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the Tasnim News Agency.
“The same is true for the Federal Republic of Germany, especially since Germany has received threatening messages in recent years on a regular basis and has been named as a potential target of terror,” the parliamentarian noted.
He further stressed the need for closer international cooperation to fight against terrorism and emphasized that the campaign would be long and difficult.
Now better international cooperation is needed to ensure full and continuous exchange of security data, Bosbach said, adding that no security agencies should work under the motto of “I know something you do not know”.
On Thursday, the European Union lawmakers approved a scheme to share airline passenger information that nations hope to use to track foreign fighters traveling to and from conflict areas like Syria and who might pose a danger in Europe.
The move ends years of wrangling over how to balance security needs and privacy rights. Lawmakers came under great pressure to adopt the scheme in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 and last month’s suicide bombings in Brussels, which left 32 dead.
The Passenger Name Record law was approved at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, by 461 votes to 179, with nine abstentions.
Critics say that many of those linked to the attacks were already known to the authorities, and that the scheme would needlessly collect private information about ordinary citizens, as well as be costly and cumbersome to operate. They say that the 28 EU countries are simply not sharing the information they already have.
Under the scheme, law enforcement agencies in all 28 nations would have access to traveler details gathered by airlines, including names, travel dates, itineraries and credit card details.
The EU agreed to passenger data deals with the US, Canada and Australia years ago but has struggled to finalize one to share data among its member states. The EU scheme was originally proposed in 2007. It spent five years under debate at the assembly.