EU to Set up Expert Cell to Fight Extremists’ Propaganda

Local Editor

The European Union plans to set up a cell of advisers in Belgium that member governments can tap to fight extremist propaganda, a top EU official told a newspaper Saturday.

"The idea is for Belgium to welcome a cell of experts who can offer European countries immediate responses to a very serious communications problem," EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove told Le Soir newspaper.

Social media has become a powerful recruiting tool for extremists, with "ISIL" posting several videos online showing grisly beheadings of Western hostages.

The experts taking part in the pilot project will offer "counter-narratives" and other messages to fight the propaganda used by "ISIL" and other terrorist groups, de Kerchove said.

For example, he said, the experts might be able to distribute interviews of extremists who return from Syria disillusioned with the cause.
De Kerchove said the project is not yet finalized but the European Commission, the EU executive arm, aims to set aside 1 million euros over 18 months to hire five or six experts who work inside the Belgian Interior Ministry, according to the daily.

He said the cell would have a limited capacity to advise simultaneously a handful of European governments seeking to tackle a communications problem.
"We will see if it leads to something," the counter-terrorism expert was quoted as saying.
"If it works well, without doubt some states will develop a certain capacity and would like to continue it with their own means. The idea is to advise; the state then does what it wants," he said.

There was no immediate comment from the European Commission.

De Kerchove told AFP in September that around 3,000 citizens of the European Union had flocked to support terrorists in Syria and Iraq as EU member states worry that some of them could pose a "terrorist" threat when they return to their home countries trained and battle hardened.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team