CEP organizes high-level event featuring Commissioner King and European Parliamentarians

(Strasbourg, France) – The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) organized a high-level meeting on January 15 with Commissioner for the Security Union Sir Julian King and Members of the European Parliament to discuss the pending legislative initiative designed to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online.

The meeting represented welcome engagement from key stakeholders on a critical issue. The participation of Commissioner Sir Julian King, file rapporteur Daniel Dalton MEP, and other MEPs is an important signal that the political will is there to ensure legislation passes in this mandate. We hope that the discussion generated useful ideas and impetus to bring about action.

“We need to take action to keep Europeans safe from the destructive spread of terrorist content online,” said CEP Senior Advisor Lucinda Creighton. “We commend all those present for endeavouring to drive this crucial legislation forward and avoid an unnecessary delay on taking action.”

Key takeaways from the meeting included:

• EU Member State competent authorities need to agree on the ‘definition’ of terror content.
• The stipulation that terror content should be removed within one hour of referral should remain included in the regulation. A commitment can be included to support this.
• It is important that EU Member State competent authorities coordinate actions.