From 21 to 23 February, the Maltese Presidency organised the CEPOL seminar 94/2017 "Preventing radicalisation to terrorism and violent extremism: strengthening the Member States’ response".
The seminar was targeted to heads of counter-terrorism units, law enforcement officials with direct experience in counter-terrorism and heads of National Security Departments and Agencies. Experts from Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, the FBI, the Radical Awareness Network (RAN) as well as local ones also took part in this activity.
The aim of this seminar was to increase and exchange knowledge and good practices related to departing and returning foreign fighters, to enhance knowledge on recruitment, travel and financing arrangements related to foreign fighters in the EU, and to encourage cooperation and mutual response to address radicalisation, in an attempt to prevent any further promotion of violent ideas and activities. More specifically, the seminar aimed at:
- explaining the EU strategy on foreign fighters;
- discussing good practices developed by EU Member States and agencies in relation to departing and returning foreign fighters;
- identifying routes towards conflict areas preferred by departing and returning foreign fighters;
- comparing approaches to recruitment, travel and financing arrangements related to foreign fighters;
- illustrating the importance of intelligence analysis in the framework of foreign fighters;
- describing the role of radicalisation in the recruitment of foreign fighters;
- discussing the impact of foreign fighters on return to the European Union;
- discussing key indicators that facilitate and/or encourage radicalisation of foreign fighters in the EU.
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The seminar was highly successful, as evidenced from the following quotes extracted from the participants’ evaluation reports:
- “The organisers were very kind and professional".
- “We were given a clear vision of how countries with different levels of threat are currently handling the prevention of radicalisation”.
- “Perfect hospitality, very good organisation, very good trainers”.
- “I have been to many CEPOL events, and this one is among the top of them. Everything was excellent to the last detail. The Maltese team has done a superb job, and in the future I believe that many more CEPOL courses should be organised in Malta”.
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