Europa shton masat…kontrolle më të rrepta në kufijtë e saj

Following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, France and Germany are calling for much stricter security at their external borders. Experts say, however, that such measures alone are unlikely to solve the problem.

The attacks began in Paris on October 16 – when teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by Chechen teenager Abdullah Anzorov.

Less than two weeks later, a Tunisian man struck three people to death in a church in the city of Nice. He had arrived there from Tunisia as an immigrant through Italy.

And on November 2, Islamic State sympathizer Kujtim Fejzullai shot and killed four people in Vienna.

The leaders of these countries – along with other European heads of state and officials – met on Tuesday to discuss their response to the situation. France and Germany have called for tighter border crossings in Europe’s passport-free travel zones, known as the Schengen Area.

“The measure is not about reducing or diminishing the right to asylum, but it is about enforcing it fairly and fighting ways to misuse it, and to better protect our common borders,”  said French President Emmanuel Macron. .

Terrorists in Nice and Vienna had moved freely between the Schengen countries. Securing the external border will not necessarily solve the problem, says terror analyst Raffaello Pantucci.

“As we have seen repeatedly in the past, terrorist attacks tend to come from within. The last incident we saw in Austria was another example of this. While the individual involved may be a second generation immigrant, he “He was actually born in Austria,”  said the analyst.

So how should governments deal with the threat of increased radicalization in the country? Europe is proposing new laws to crack down on internet companies that allow extremist content.

“Once they are given evidence that there is something criminal or harmful on their site, they must react immediately and swiftly,”  said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

The EU summit took place on the fifth anniversary of the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, when nine attackers killed 130 people. Since then, most attacks in Europe have been carried out by so-called lone terrorists.

“It’s a better situation than it was a few years ago, at the time of the large-scale attacks we saw in Paris or Madrid or London,”  says Raffaelo Pantucci.

The 27 heads of state of the European Union will meet again in December to decide on concrete steps to address the terrorist threat.