European and German Security Policy and International Terrorism

• Author: Torsten Stein
• Position: Professor of International, European Union and Comparative Constitutional Law and Director, Institute of European Studies (Law Department), University of Saarland, Saarbnicken, Germany
• Pages: 31-51

Ill

European and German Security Policy

and International Terrorism

Torsten Stein*

German security policy cannot be separated from that ofthe European Union,

especially when it comes to border controls as one of its principal elements.

Since the 1970s, the European Union (then the European Economic Community

(EEC)) has been engaged in harmonizing the Member States' security policy,

which has, in the light of the ongoing European integration, become one of its pri-

mary goals, especially with regard to the enlargement of the European Union, which

took place on May 1, 2004. The importance of both European and transatlantic co-

operation in this field cannot therefore be overemphasized, particularly since the

events of September 11, 2001, which have confronted all States with anew threat. 1

The most prominent feature ofthe threat posed by international terrorism is the

changed profile of its perpetrators: Al Qaida, and the persons and organizations as-

sociated with it, is not confined to nations, regarding either its members or its aims.

The offenders are recruited from various countries and together constitute an in-

ternationally organized structure of terrorism, of which all Western societies can

be victims, as witnessed last in Madrid. From asociological point of view, this in-

ternational terrorist structure differs from all known criminal groups. The

*Professor of International, European Union and Comparative Constitutional Law and

Director, Institute of European Studies (Law Department), University of Saarland, Saarbnicken,

Germany.

European and German Security Policy and International Terrorism

spectrum reaches from illiterate religious fanatics to highly educated businessmen

with international experience. 2The focus ofthis article shall therefore be on the de-

velopment of border controls and their effectiveness in the fight against interna-

tional terrorism.

Legal Regimefor Security Policy and Border Controls in Europe and Germany

The ongoing European integration has brought Europe's citizens not only eco-

nomical, but also great personal freedom, adevelopment which found its climax in

the introduction of EU citizenship by the Maastricht Treaty on European Union.3

But by granting those freedoms, aneed for coordinating justice and home affairs

became obvious. Starting with the Naples Agreement on the Cooperation of Cus-

toms Services in 1967,4informal governmental cooperation in the area of justice

and home affairs has evolved. In this context, the TREVI Group,5mandated to

combat terrorism, illegal immigration and organized crime, and composed of ex-

ecutives of the Member States' respective authorities, was created. The Single Eu-

ropean Act of 1986,6which introduced the concept of the Single Market, brought

about the need to create abalance between market freedoms and security interests,

especially as far as controls ofthe EEC's external borders and the creation of acom-

mon European asylum and immigration policy were concerned.

The Schengen Regime

Due to the difficult and tedious process of reconciling policies in the area ofjustice

and home affairs, France, Germany and the Benelux countries concluded the 1985

Schengen Agreement7with aview to abolishing controls at the internal borders,

harmonizing measures in the area of visas and asylum policy, and creating police

and judicial cooperation. The 1990 Schengen Implementation Agreement (SLA) 8

codified the abolishment of internal border controls, laid down the procedure for

controls at the external borders, and provided common rules for issuing short-

term visas and for determining jurisdiction for asylum requests according to the

Dublin Agreement.9The SIA came into force in 1995. The most interesting fea-

tures of the SIA for the topic of this article are the introduction of cross-border

pursuit and shadowing and of the "Schengen Information System" (SIS). The lat-

ter is acomputerized network allowing the Member States' police authorities to ex-

change data on wanted persons as well as stolen goods, e.g., cars. The weak point of

the SIS is that it is designed to serve only 18 Member States. Therefore, the Euro-

pean Community Council, at the urging of the Schengen Executive Council 10 (the

primary organ created by the Schengen Agreements), directed that asecond-gen-

eration Schengen Information System (SIS II) be developed that would take into

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