Vita International meets Christian Kaunert , Professor of International Politics at the University of Dundee and Director of the European Institute for Security and Justice (EISJ), to discuss how Europe will change in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that hit the European capital on Tuesday.
How will the Brussels attacks impact the European debate over migration and the future of asylum seekers?
At the moment we cannot see any factual consequences but various far right groups have already started to use the events for their propaganda. Although we do not see any political effect yet, some politicians have used Twitter and other social networks to virtually create an impact on people’s mind. Europe is already pushing for restrictive policies and the attacks will strenghthen these positions.
How do you expect Europe to change after the attacks?
Governments are going to push for more restrictions. Angela Merkel’s open doors policies will be under an increasing pressure. Germany already witnessed a surge of the anti-refugee party in the regional elections two weeks ago, and the attacks will contribute to the growth of anti-migration movements. From a security point of view, the attacks have also underlined that cooperation among the intelligence agencies at a EU level, often due to a widespread lack of trust, is a tragic soft spot in European security. What happened in Brussels will probably increase the political pressure on intelligence services and it will force them to cooperate more, although this will be extremely complicated, since “not sharing information” is the nature of their job. Having a more effective secret service strategy will be key for Europe, as these will not be the last attacks we’ll see. I would be surprised if countries like Germany and Italy weren’t targeted.
What will the impact of the attacks be on the UK Eu membership referendum?
It will be very negative. The way some politicians and some news outlets have portrayed the attacks undermines Europe’s reliability and the EU’s role in creating a safer environment. The UKIP party has already labelled Brussels “the jihadist capital of Europe”. Free movement has been criticised as one of the causes behind the lack of security. It is an easy argument and for this reason it’s easy for people to understand it but it is wrong. Even if there were border controls, we would be able to stop a terrorist, only if we knew that the person was a terrorist. It is counterintuitive, because in fact, the European Union makes us safer, as it allows international police cooperation. In 2005 for example, one of the suspects of the London terrorist attacks was arrested in Italy and immediately extradited to the UK, this would have been extremely complicated if not impossibile, without the EU policies. There is still a lot of work to do, but the European Union is creating a safer environment indeed.
Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images
