A message from the co-presidents of Volt Europa

As Europeans, we stand with Vienna, just like Europe stood with France last week. Volt extends its heartfelt condolences to all affected by this evil act of Islamist terrorism. We will continue to stand against violence— especially when it seeks to undermine our European values. 

In order to safeguard Europeans, Volt wants the EU to be active on counter-terrorism and prevent violent extremism:

1. Volt calls for a true federal mandate for Europol, the EU agency for law enforcement cooperation. Its current structure weakens security cooperation against terrorist threats by relying too much on the goodwill of governments to share vital information. As we share a common area with free movement of goods and people, national borders do not contain security threats: it only makes sense for our security responses to not be hindered by borders as well. Europol should therefore have the abilities to independently trace terrorist threats on the EU territory, and have the means to intervene when needed.  Since the Commission will propose a review of Europol’s powers in December, now is the perfect time to push this idea forward.
2. We need to deter and prevent violent extremism and tackle religious radicalisation at its roots. Volt believes that politics should strive to build bridges between communities instead of antagonising them. We believe in mutual tolerance and respect as the basis for peaceful co-existence and reaching out hands to each other to build communities. Cooperation between religious communities to deter extremism should be part of the solution. To achieve this, we call for local EU-funded projects to foster interfaith initiatives and associations. Those projects could also work with religious representatives and authorities to come up with counter-narratives providing positive alternatives to radicalisation.
   

On behalf of Volt,

Reinier van Lanschot & Valerie Sternberg, Co-Presidents of Volt Europa