Europol warns of takfirist groups amid legal and security restrictions
In mid-June 2023, Europol issued its annual report on
patterns and trends of terrorism over the past year, along with assessments of
the security situation in European Union countries.
The report presents the vision of European politicians about
the most prominent changes for them in the terrorism file, as these reports are
a summary of what governments adopt towards an issue. Accordingly, Europol
declared that takfirist terrorist groups are the security concern of the
countries of the region in this context.
Figures on terrorism in the EU
The report indicated that there were 28 terrorist operations
in the European Union during 2022, including those that were completed, those
that failed, and those that were thwarted before implementation, which means an
increase in the rates of operations in 2022 compared to those in 2021, when 18
cases were recorded.
The year 2020 remains the highest in terms of operations, as
it witnessed 56 cases. The largest percentage was for Italy, followed by
France, then Greece, then Belgium, Germany and Spain. The latest report on the situation of terrorism in the European Union
studies attacks and those involved in extremism during the years from 2020 to
2022.
According to the statistics, the year 2020 witnessed 56
attacks (completed, failed, or thwarted), in addition to 449 arrests of
suspects in the terrorism file, while there were 18 attacks in 2021 as
classified by the study, in addition to 388 arrests.
Regarding the financing of terrorism, Europol statistics
indicate that there are increasing legal measures to undermine suspicious
financing of violence, monitor the collection of funds and donations, and
monitor the transactions of financial services companies and money transfer
platforms. During the year 2022, the authorities arrested 380 people, including
14 involved in terrorist financing cases. The most prominent of these cases was
a case of transferring money to ISIS cells in Libya through a suspicious cash
network in Spain. The authorities have also monitored the existence of networks
of other extremist currents that help them finance their activities.
What is remarkable about the latest statistics is that the
numbers of attacks and those arrested in this context included takfirists, as
well as elements of the far right and the far left. Despite this, the takfirist
movement is the most threatening to EU countries, according to Europol.
Terrorism challenges in the EU
Some EU countries have resorted to changing their legal
texts in order to be able to confront terrorism
with its new challenges. In Switzerland, the government reformulated some
articles to suit the emerging developments in this file, as well as France,
which issued a legal draft called “Principles of the New Republic”.
However, the laws introduced in Europe face increasing fears
of their potential impact on the values of human rights and personal and public
freedoms, as well as the international responsibilities entrusted to
governments to carry them. For example, many governments, led by the United
States during the term of former President Donald Trump, called for the need
for European countries to restore their citizens who joined ISIS from conflict
areas, but some authorities rejected this request, and Britain even resorted to
drafting new laws that enable it to withdraw its nationality from these ISIS
elements without notifying them in order to get rid of these burdens.
For its part, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
indicated in a research paper presented on combating terrorism in Europe that
the human rights file has a special character in EU institutions’ legal
treatment of the issue of extremism, and the region must abide by these special
connections in order to preserve the values of the
region.
