Terrorism in Brussels: One Year On

A year ago today 32 people were killed and over 300 injured when terrorists carried out multiple attacks in Brussels. In responding to the incident and the elevated terrorist threat across Europe it illustrated, the Belgian authorities locked down the city, putting soldiers and armoured vehicles on to the streets, at the airport and at other major landmarks.

That highly visible military presence is still there today. It has become part of life in this beautiful, iconic European city. Their continued presence is a reminder that the threat remains high.  We are still faced with a large, dispersed community of highly radicalised individuals in Europe. The chief of MI5 estimates 3,000 in Britain alone. Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium also face large numbers. Many of these people have conflict experience in Syria or Iraq, and there are thousands of others who have stayed at home and had their minds turned by the ugly propaganda of IS to shoot a police officer or drive a hijacked truck through a Christmas market. Together they make up a threat environment in which we continue to see a high tempo of planned and attempted attacks. The nature of the threat is such that some of these are likely to succeed in the future.

These days, however, the majority of terrorist plots are disrupted by police and security services. Through better cross-border coordination and intelligence sharing the space and opportunity for IS and other groups to operate within has been considerably squeezed in the last year. The recent establishment of the European Counter Terrorism Centre at Europol has certainly helped. The Centre supported 127 counter-terrorist investigations across Europe in 2016 and has helped to trigger a ten-fold increase in intelligence sharing between national authorities and Europol over the last two years. It forms part of a huge collective response by the counter-terrorist community in Europe to deal with unprecedented levels of terrorist activity by finding new or improved ways to monitor and disrupt a threat that operates on a pan-European basis. At Europol we have also upped our game in monitoring terrorist propaganda online and in tracking flows of terrorist financing and illegal firearms.

All of this helps to reduce the threat. In Belgium the open and honest way the police and intelligence community, the political class and society as a whole have reflected on the implications of the terrorist attacks on March 22nd has also paved the way for the introduction of important new measures to strengthen the overall response.  

In the face of all this activity the citizens of Belgium, and France and Germany and other countries afflicted by the scourge of terrorism, have adapted to a new security reality in their daily lives. But, in doing so, they have also shown huge reserves of reslience and a highly commendable, determined spirit to continue to live their lives according the values we all cherish in Europe. A year on from that dreadful day in Brussels, it is that spirit that shines above all else.