Luxembourg justice minister Etienne Schneider, who chaired an emergency meeting, said quick and strengthened action “is not an option but an obligation”.
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British Home Secretary Theresa May said that it is important “to ensure the security of the EU’s external borders”. “Today we took strong operational decisions”.
French police official Jean-Marc Falcone, speaking on France-Info radio, said he was unable to say if Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, blew himself up in the attacks, could be back on French territory.
The European Union said that it would tighten security controls at its external borders of the passport-free Schengen zone including checks of its own citizens.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziè re said that air travelers’ records were needed because foreign fighters in Syria move back and forth when planning attacks on Europe.
However, the European Union was warned by three United Nations agencies that a sudden tightening of controls along the refugee route through the Balkans would worsen an increasingly untenable situation, stranding many people outdoors amid plunging temperatures.
“Those who organised these attacks and those that perpetrated them are exactly those that the refugees are fleeing and not the opposite”, he said.
Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said during the meeting that “Schengen must be defended at all costs”, according to one source in the room. Cazeneuve said it would take too long to establish and Avramopoulos later climbed down, saying his was “an ideal idea” that had not even been discussed by the meeting.
In Europe, the proof that Abaaoud – who is believed to be a senior Daesh commander – was in Paris on the night of the attacks raises further questions about how he managed to slip through Europe’s net.
French researchers immediately identified Belgian-created Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, as the architect of the strikes in Paris, but considered he’d organized the assaults against a rock concert, cafes as well as a soccer stadium from Syria’s battle fields.
A man suspected of scouting targets for Islamic State before last week’s terror attacks in Paris has been arrested in Turkey this morning. He died during a police raid of an apartment in the Saint-Denis area of Paris on Wednesday after police discovered he was hiding out there.
Six of the raids were connected to Bilal Hadfi, one of the three suicide bombers who struck outside the stadium, prosecutors said.
French President Francois Hollande will preside over a national ceremony November 27 honoring the at least 129 victims of the deadliest attacks on France in decades.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said there is no credible threat in the USA of a Paris-type attack and no connection between the Paris attackers and the U.S. Still, he urged Americans to be vigilant and tell law enforcement about anything suspicious. The ceremony will be at the gold-domed Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon’s tomb lies and which is seen as a symbol of France’s military and global strength.
“One month is not serious”, Cazeneuve said, adding that “PNR is essential to follow up on fighters returning from abroad”.
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The ministers also agreed on the “urgency and priority” to finalise an ambitious EU Passenger Name Record agreement before the end of 2015, which should include internal flights in its scope, provide for a sufficiently long data period during which PNR data can be retained in non-masked-out form and should not be limited to crimes of a transnational nature.
