European nations worked in close partnership with
the United States in the global counterterrorism
campaign and have continued to strengthen
their legal and administrative ability to take
action against terrorists and their supporters,
including freezing their assets. The contributions
of European countries in sharing intelligence,
arresting members of terrorist cells, and interdicting
terrorist fi nancing and logistics continued to be vital
elements in the war on terrorism. Allies such as
France and the United Kingdom were particularly
responsive during periods of heightened security,
cooperating with United States officials to monitor
airline flights of concern.
The European Union (EU) has been a reliable
partner in the war on terrorism and has signifi cantly
strengthened its legal and administrative ability,
and that of EU member states, to take action
against terrorists and their supporters—including
freezing their assets—in the past several years.
International judicial cooperation advanced in 2003,
as EU members changed domestic legislation
to incorporate provision of the European Arrest
Warrant, which was scheduled to come into effect
in early 2004. The EU and United States signed
new Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance
Treaties at the G-8 Summit in June 2003 that will
expand law enforcement and judicial cooperation.
Signifi cant defi ciencies remained, however, and
some countries have legal impediments to taking
fi rm judicial action against known terrorists,
often stemming from asylum laws, inadequate
counterterrorism legislation, or high standards of
evidence that afford loopholes and limit the ability
of authorities to hold suspects. The EU as a whole
was reluctant to take steps to block the assets of
charities associated with HAMAS and Hizballah.
The United Kingdom continued its longstanding
close partnership with the United States, providing
the second-largest contingent of forces for the
liberation of Iraq, arresting extremists in the
United Kingdom on terrorism-related charges,
and stepping up efforts to disrupt and prosecute
terrorists. The United Kingdom aggressively
moved to freeze the assets of organizations and
persons with terrorist links and to proscribe terrorist
groups. UK overseas interests were attacked in
November when suicide bombers struck the British
Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul, killing
25 people. The United Kingdom provided signifi cant
counterterrorism assistance and training to foreign
governments around the world.
Italy continued its exemplary work against
terrorism, deploying forces to Afghanistan and
Iraq. Nineteen Italian citizens were killed in a
terrorist attack on Italian Carabinieri in Iraq. Italian
authorities continued to disrupt suspected terrorist
cells linked to al-Qaida and, for the fi rst time,
expelled suspects believed to pose a terrorist
threat. Members of the Red Brigades–Communist
Combatant Party staged a shootout with police,
leading to the arrest of the group’s leader and
subsequent signifi cant progress in dismantling it.
Spain’s vigorous investigation of extremist groups
continued, with Spanish authorities indicting
Usama Bin Ladin and 34 others for complicity in the
September 11 attacks. Substantial progress was
made against the Basque Fatherland and Liberty
(ETA) terrorist organization; more than 100 persons
connected to ETA were arrested, and several
operational ETA cells were dismantled.
France made many signifi cant terrorism-related
arrests, including suspects linked to persons
who assisted the September 11 hijackers.
Investigations continued into the activities of
terrorist cells connected to plots against the US
Embassy in Paris. French authorities, working with
their Spanish counterparts, put intensive pressure
on ETA, arresting top leaders of the Basque
terrorist group’s military wing in December. France
continued to engage numerous non-EU countries
in dialogue on counterterrorism issues.
Cooperation among European law-enforcement
authorities was a feature of many successes during
the past year. For example, France and Spain
became the fi rst countries to create “multi-national
police investigation teams” under the terms of an
EU agreement of 2002.