EU tighten borders after Paris carnage

European Union interior and justice ministers in Brussels yesterday pledged solidarity with France in the wake of the Paris attacks a week ago and agreed a series of new measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve asked for the crisis meeting after the attack in Paris last Friday in which Islamic State radicals with ties to Syria and a planning cell based in Belgium killed 129 people across the city.

"We must be implacable in our determination, we must speed up our action, otherwise Europe will lose its way," he said after the 28 governments agreed to speed new legislation to share air passengers' data, curb firearms trafficking and ensure closer checks on EU citizens crossing Europe's external borders.

"We need to act firmly, we need to act swiftly and with force," Cazeneuve said after the Luxembourg minister who chaired the meeting confirmed the formal approval of an agreement reached among officials earlier in the week.

Those draft conclusions, seen by Reuters, included agreement to "implement immediately the necessary systematic and coordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement".

The decision came after many European countries announced plans to curb civil liberties and reintroduce border controls.

Citizens of the 26 Schengen countries have their documents visually checked by security forces when they leave or enter the area. The new proposal is likely to upgrade the controls so documents are systematically checked against criminal and security databases.

Some of the Belgian and French suspects involved in the Paris attacks had travelled to fight in Syria and returned, apparently undetected, to Europe. Officials have said some may have taken advantage of the large influx of refugees from Syria over the summer to evade normal border controls.

The EU agency for border controls, Frontex, is to get a stronger mandate to contribute to the fight against terrorism.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said before the meeting: "We are here to show our French colleagues, and the French people, that we stand by them and that we are determined to make a tough, clear response."

He said it was vital that Europe's national security services do more to share information, something echoed by numerous other ministers after the meeting.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for internal affairs and migration, said the EU executive would propose a common "European intelligence agency". But questioned after the meeting, he made clear it was a distant prospect.

Ministers also agreed to press for a deal by the end of the year on sharing airline travellers' data, the so-called Passenger Name Record (PNR) programme, which has long been stalled in the European Parliament over concerns for privacy.

French Prime Minister Valls on Thursday warned of a chemical attack threat by the IS jihadists.

Also on Thursday, members of the French National Assembly overwhelmingly approved a first reading of a law to impose a three-month state of emergency, which will suspend some civil liberties and give police sweeping powers of search, arrest and detention.

Officials said later that there was no reason to suspect an immediate threat of a chemical or biological attack but that Valls thought it necessary to place the country on guard.

The State of Emergency law – which now goes to the Sénat – gives the government power to search and arrest on “suspicion” without need for a formal investigation or a warrant from a judge. Some left-wing politicians and commentators have expressed fears that France is going down the same authoritarian road as the post 9/11 Patriot Act in the US.

The draft law also gives the government power to ban public demonstrations. Among the first victims will be two marches planned during a global climate conference in Paris from 30 November.

In Brussels, Prime Minister Charles Michel unveiled plans to spend €400m (£280m) on measures to deal with home-grown terrorism threats, including jail for fighters returning from Syria and electronic tagging for suspected radicals. “We need to do more, we need to do better,” Michel told the Belgian parliament.

The proposals provide Belgium's intelligence and security services with more staff and new technologies. Prosecutors will have the power to take suspected terrorists into temporary custody for 72 hours, up from 24.