The arrest in Rome of Osman Hussein, one of the suspects in the London bombings, showed the strength and the weakness of cross-border cooperation in the EU to tackle terrorism.
It was possible to arrest the man quite quickly after British and Italian authorities swapped details of his mobile phone calls. But a so called fast track extradiction under EU anti-terror laws seems not that easy. Italian magistrates have their own opinions.
An appropriate joint anti-terrorism fight? Europe's bureaucracy is still too heavy, the EU approach is fragmented. That is what you can hear in Brussels when you ask why sharing national intelligence can't be increased.
The European Council appointed an EU anti-terrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, but he has to work within very strict limits. In addition, terrorism is on the agenda of the G5 meetings of the interior ministers of France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. To the irritation of smaller EU members, which feel patronised.
Then there is a series of overlapping EU agencies in relation to the anti-terrorism fight: in The Hague the European police agency, Interpol, that handles intelligence by member states, but doesn't carry out own investigations; in Brussels the Situation Centre, that monitors and analyses terrorists threats from intelligence supplied by member states; there is the Border Management Agency in Warsaw, that coordinates control of the EU's external borders; Eurojust (also based in The Hague), which helps judicial authorities to tackle terrorism.
It is hard to find clear definitions of their roles. Many officials wonder whether the right information is shared. Improvement of the way the agencies combine and use information is a must. The flow of information between them must be more structured and more focused.
A series of EU run databases holds information that could help police and investigators in the anti-terrorism fight. But EU law heavily restricts national investigators' access to the information. It was once again on the agenda of the Council of Justice Ministers on 29 July. No outcome was made public.
How to persuade the 25 EU countries to swap more data? Probably for the time being a rhetorical question. Even the 13 EU countries in the frontier-free Schengen zone do not have smooth access to each other's information.
The European Union has removed many internal border checks but continues to have barriers to cooperation in may be the most important field, that of anti-terrorism. Of course, national security is at the heart of national sovereignty.
But this is not how the EU's citizens see it. Opinion polls, even in anti-EU Britain, suggest a large majority want the EU to fight terrorism. They no longer believe that national governments can deliver the appropriate level of security!
