EU security chief: Terrorists ‘are targeting our way of life’

Julian King is a short-term commissioner with a long-term job.

Europe’s terrible year of terror had just taken another horrible turn Monday as a truck plowed into a Christmas market in the center of Berlin, killing 12 and injuring dozens. In Brussels, the European Commission’s top counterterrorism official, Julian King, could do little more than post his sympathies on Twitter.

“My thoughts are with all those affected and their families in #Berlin tonight,” King wrote.

By some assessments, King’s portfolio, created for the U.K. by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, is too important for a man whose time in Brussels is limited, whose prior experience in counterterrorism was basically nil and whose country was never really willing to give full effort to the European project.

By King’s own assessment, the crucial thing to understand about the EU’s security union is what it can do and what it can’t. And for that, who better than a Briton?

“I think it’s important that we talk about what we are trying to do and what we are not trying to do,” King told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday in his 10^th floor office in the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters.

King sat at a conference table, sipping a mug of green tea. On the walls were photos of Queen Elizabeth and her dogs.

The attack in Berlin added another gruesome chapter to Europe’s battle against terror that has included two mass shootings in Paris, the bombings of a subway station and the main airport in Brussels, and the massacre-by-truck of pedestrians in Nice.

“In these matters, and particularly when faced with these kind of events, member states and member states’ agencies are in the front line,” King said. “And we’re not in the business of replacing or getting in the way of member states’ agencies on first responders.”

After Monday’s attack, the lines of communication with Berlin opened quickly, he said, and European agencies, including Europol, would act as needed. As for the EU, the message to Germany was clear: “If now or later there’s anything we can do to help, we’ll help.”

But the role of the security union, King said, is one of broader, deeper, longer-term cooperation. And the fight against terrorism — especially the Islamic State, or Daesh —  is bigger than any political arguments among like-minded allies.

“Daesh aren’t targeting one member state or another member state,” King said. “They don’t care whether you are a member of the European Union or a member of Schengen or not. They are targeting our way of life, and that’s why we need to stand together in its defense.”

On a practical level, King said that means the EU’s role is to support national governments.

“What we are trying to do through the security union is to help and assist and support member states and member states’ agencies who are in the front line,” King said. “So we are seeking through various ways, with the other institutions and the member states, to close down the space in which terrorists and criminals … can act, by cutting off the means they use to act and making their ability to act constrained.

“We are seeking to increase our collective resilience, make ourselves a harder target and make sure if the worst happens, when the worst happens, we are in a position to respond effectively. So that’s the objective.”

In Wellington’s footsteps

King, who was ambassador to France for less than nine months before being appointed commissioner, likes to joke that he was the shortest-serving U.K. envoy to Paris since the Duke of Wellington, who became ambassador in 1814 but left within a year to return to the battlefield and defeat Napoleon at Waterloo.

Unlike Napoleon, King seems to be taking care only to fight battles he can win. He is also forthright about the limitations of his efforts.

“I think we need to be straightforward with each other,” he said. “The things that we are doing won’t stop every attack. There is no way of reducing the risk level that we face to zero … We can seriously constrain the space in which terrorists can act, but we cannot eliminate the possibility of attacks.”

On Wednesday, King and the Commission are set to roll out a new package of policy proposals, legislative initiatives and other measures aimed at strengthening the security union. These include new proposals on money laundering, cash controls and confiscation of assets.

Efforts are also underway to enhance the integration of EU counterterrorism databases, and make them more accessible to front-line responders, to tighten firearms restrictions, stem weapons trafficking, particularly from the Western Balkans and to enlist internet companies in identifying and blocking online content that could promote terrorism or radicalization.

King said officials have learned numerous hard lessons from the attacks over the past year — and new legislation is on the table as a result.

For instance, weapons used in one of the Paris attacks helped focus attention on potential loopholes in the standards for “deactivating” weapons, with the goal of preventing such guns from being easily “reactivated” through minor repairs. And attacks thwarted in France and the U.K. have drawn attention to the need for tighter controls on chemicals and other ingredients that might be used in homemade explosives.

“They were based on using home-built explosives constructed out of stuff that you can buy down the DIY store,” King said. “So that is a concrete lesson that we have learned.”

Some of the most important work, he said, is focused on information-sharing. “We are trying to strengthen the effectiveness of the EU-wide law enforcement databases,” he said. “These databases are good, but there is more work to be done, no one shies away from that.”

There is also intense focus on efforts to prevent cybercrime and cyberterrorism, including potential attacks on critical infrastructure like electricity grids, transportation systems and medical facilities.

Transitional commissioner

Some officials who have long worked on security matters said King was trying to do his best under tough political circumstances.

“King has a clear idea that he has a limited amount of time and in his time he wants to get stuff done,” a senior diplomat said. “He is an extremely quick study wanting to get progress on several points. He is concerned about information-sharing between member states and Europol and wants to increase the amount of it.”

A senior EU official said, “King is aware that he was appointed for a transition phase until Brexit negotiations are complete. His appointment was a political one, and is therefore not meant to introduce policies but rather to promote the topics already in the works such as the interoperability of databases.”

In the interview, King said it was clear the U.K. and EU would remain close partners in fighting terrorism after Brexit.

“I welcome the fact that the British government have indicated that whatever the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU27, they want to, they are interested in, continuing in, maybe even developing, cooperation around law enforcement and counterterrorism.”

In the end, he said, the EU and U.K. would be partners in a more elemental fight. “If you accept that Daesh, Daesh-inspired terrorism, is targeting our way of life,” he said, “it’s a question of standing together in defense of that way of life and our values.”

He added, “So for me it’s a question of whether you are cooperating as effectively as you can.”

Giulia Paravicini contributed reporting to this article.