Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge gave a keynote address during a two-day conference, “Transatlantic Relations: How Do We Make the UN and Multilateralism Effective?” Hosted by the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS, the Luxembourg University Center, the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the conference focused on multilateralism mechanisms to fight terror and address global and strategic challenges.
" [...] under this program, CSI container security initiative the United States has placed Customs and border protection inspectors at 25 foreign seaports, from Vancouver to Rotterdam to Singapore. We actually work in conjunction with and in partnership with our allies to not only review the manifests of 100 percent of the containers, but those that give us some concern, give us some doubt, pull them offwith our allies and run them through an X-ray machine. The United States and European Community recently signed an agreement that calls for the prompt expansion of CSI throughout that part of the world. This agreement will intensify and broaden Customs cooperation and mutual assistance in Customs matters between the EU and the US. With this agreement, we have pledged to share tools, information, and best practices necessary to secure our ports and our oceans from attack." Read More

Speakers included many top US and European Diplomats, including António Vitorino, European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, who addressed the issue of a common homeland security.
The achievement in terms of police cooperation mentioned in the report are clearly a step forward in a functionalist approach to international police. The Europol Agreement in particular should be welcomed and closely implemented. We should promote a strengthening of bilateral institution in charge with the exchange of personal data. This represent a fundamental cornerstone in the war on terrorism, but so far has been subject to a strict unilateralist approach, due to the severe regulation about privacy on both sides of the Atlantic.

“EU–U.S. Cooperation Since 11 September Mindful of the often very sensitive nature of the issues that we are dealing with in our domain, the cooperation between the EU and U.S. in the Justice and Home Affairs field since September 11 has been remarkably successful. Cooperation has developed broadly speaking in three areas.

First, in the area of police cooperation, we concluded two cooperation agreements between the European Police Office ‘Europol’ and U.S. law enforcement agencies. The first agreement was concluded in December 2001 and allowed for, inter alia, the exchange of liaison officers. As a concrete result we now have two Europol liaison officers posted at the EU’s Delegation here in Washington . The second agreement, which allows for the exchange of personal data, was concluded a year later in December 2002. In particular this agreement was no mean feat as we all know how difficult it is to reconcile our respective personal data protection cultures. I will come back to this issue later.

The second area in which we launched enhanced cooperation concerns judicial criminal cooperation. It is here that we have arguably achieved the most remarkable success with the signature at the EU-U.S. Summit in June 2003 of innovative agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance .”

Read full report

Further Reference

Transantlantic Homeland Defense: Special Report
Center for Technology and National Security Policy
Institute for National Strategic Studies
National Defense University
May 2006

This paper proposes an initiative to enhance transatlantic homeland defense at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) November 2006 Riga Summit and beyond. As NATO develops its capabilities for expeditionary operations, it needs to revitalize plans and capabilities essential to realize its core mission: protecting Alliance territory as outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. This back-to-basics approach is designed to ensure that Allies can protect the transatlantic homeland against an array of new threats and challenges. This initiative would unfold in the context of broader efforts to protect the Euro-Atlantic community. NATO is but one of many institutions —national and international, governmental and nongovernmental—involved in societal security. (...) Homeland defense—that is, the military’s role in preventing and defending against terrorist attacks on the territory of Alliance members —is an increasingly important imperative for the United States, Canada and Europe. NATO has the opportunity to articulate a strategic direction and planning process for homeland defense to ensure that relevant Alliance activities and capabilities are adapted and integrated to deal with these new threats. …. This initiative would offer NATO both a 21st-century approach to Article 5 and new meaning and credibility in the eyes of NATO publics who are concerned about threats to their homelands. This report proposes that enhanced transatlantic homeland defense be a major initiative for adoption at the 2006 Riga Summit and completion at the 2008 summit. Accompanying this initiative would be parallel proposals on strengthening partnerships with nonmembers and further improving NATO’s military forces and capabilities for new-era missions. The initiative would include four categories of homeland defense, none of which would address expeditionary, counterterrorism, natural disaster, and humanitarian missions outside the NATO area. In some cases, capabilities created for homeland defense purposes could be used within and outside the NATO area for such civil-military missions. … NATO will need improvements in physical assets and strengthened strategic planning and operating capacities. It also will require close coordination and harmonization with national governments, many of which view control of homeland security resources as vital manifestations of their sovereignty. Read More

European Institute Says NATO Can Do More For Transatlantic Homeland Seurity
July 24, 2006
Transatlantic cooperation in combating terrorism sometimes raises doctrinal quarrels about what intellectual framework is appropriate in policy-making and what agencies should have the lead role in implementing preventive actions and, if necessary, coordinating the response to a catastrophe. In practice, great strides have been made toward common practices on both sides of the Atlantic in areas of police work ranging from information-sharing on travelers and joint customs work to less public areas such as intelligence-sharing. Some new suggestions are circulating about possible ways to tap into NATO’s resources and capabilities to improve measures of homeland defense in the United States and in Europe. Read More

CEPS, European Homeland Security Post-March 11th and Transatlantic Relations 

The Center for Transatlantic Relations will cooperate with the Homeland Security Department. Read More