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Leaders of the European Union (EU) on Thursday agreed on measures to counter terrorism, European Council President Donald Tusk, has said.
Addressing news conference in Brussels, Tusk said that terrorism, “which is still a major threat,” was the first topic the leaders discussed at the ongoing two-day summit. He said that the EU leaders also agreed to strengthen efforts against foreign terrorist fighters, who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups in the region.
“We want to finalise work on the new border information sharing systems this year,” he said. The EU council president said that the leaders also decided to work with owners of social media companies to remove extremist content online that incite terrorism.
“We are calling on social media companies to do whatever is necessary to prevent the spread of terrorist materials on the internet,” Tusk said.
On defence, Tusk said the EU leaders agreed on the need to set up permanent European cooperation on defence. “Within three months, member states will agree on a common list of criteria and commitments to take the cooperation off the ground,” Tusk said.
The EU leaders, who attended the summit, are also expected to discuss migration, economic and trade issues.
(Source: Xinhua/NAN)
