Antonio López-Istúriz White (PPE-DE), draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs. – (ES) Mr President, Commissioner, at this point in time, combating terrorism, preventing it and wiping it from the face of the Earth must be the sole priority objective of this European Union’s policies.

We must not forget that on 11 March, Spain and Europe were attacked in a cruel and cowardly fashion because they represent a model of the freedoms that we in this House are always trying to safeguard. On that day, 11 March, the history of Spain, the history of Europe, and hence the history of the European Union, changed. From that moment, it became necessary to acknowledge that terrorism is not a uniform, homogenous or monolithic reality.

On the contrary, that attack demonstrated that there are many different types of terrorism; the means for combating those different types of terrorism must not, therefore, be generic, but rather specific and suited to each of them. From this point of view, the terrorism of Al Qaeda cannot be fought in the same way as the terrorism of ETA or that of the IRA. And it cannot, of course, be combated if we deny its existence, as some Members here in the European Parliament want to do, by removing any mention of Al Qaeda from our anti-terrorist documents. If I have learnt one lesson from history, it is that if we ignore it, we are doomed to repeat it.

If this fight is to be effective, we must base our efforts on prevention mechanisms, and I entirely agree with the Commissioner. The fight must not be based exclusively on reaction mechanisms; the best way to combat terrorism is to prevent it. I entirely agree with Mr Mayor Oreja when he says that prevention must be based on the rapid and bilateral exchange of information amongst the specialised services of the Member States, on facilitating the systematic transmission of information to Europol and Eurojust and on the creation of registers, such as the register of European criminals, to facilitate investigations.

No difficulty must hinder the effective protection of freedom and the right to life. The defence of life and of freedom must always be our priorities in this fight.