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04:01Because Europe is still at the same time not joining officially the United States,
04:06going into the war against Iran.
04:08But does that put Europe at the same threat level as the US, the way you see it?
04:12Or could that be worse should Europe join?
04:15The threat has been there for a while and the threat is escalating.
04:18Now, depending on how Europe will engage or not in that conflict,
04:23that of course will affect further the threat picture internally.
04:27But I don't deal, let's say, with the bigger picture.
04:30I really focus on how are the lives of people in the EU possibly affected.
04:35What is your assessment over the threat coming from ISIS?
04:40Is that over or not yet?
04:43Look, Islamic, the jihadism, let's say, remains the number one threat in Europe.
04:47Has always been and that has not gone away over the years.
04:50We've seen some new threats that I'll be happy to say a few words about.
04:53But in terms of jihadism, that's the number one threat to our security.
04:57We've seen it coming from different regions.
04:59Central Asia is one.
05:00Where we see a direct threat projection.
05:03What's important to say, yes, we defeated the caliphate or the so-called caliphate 10 years ago.
05:09And ever since, what we've seen, and that is something that we're very closely monitoring,
05:14is that IS has adapted its tactics.
05:17And it's been very agile.
05:18First of all, it's decentralized its command centers, meaning that it has now different front lines, let's say, in the
05:24global war of jihad in different regions.
05:28But also, instead of organizing the sort of large scale concerted attacks from outside the EU's borders, it has now
05:36shifted tactics to really trying to recruit people, very often young adolescents from within the EU, which from their perspective
05:45is perhaps more effective.
05:46And we've seen there a trend of increased radicalization, especially of young people.
05:51And all this is happening in an online environment that very much still provides a lot of space for the
05:57kind of content that leads to radicalization.
05:59When you say young people, what are the, if we can speak about the age range of the young people
06:05being radicalized?
06:06I mean, we're talking about minors, age between 12 and 20 years old.
06:10I mean, we've seen cases of young individuals radicalizing who were as young as 12 years old.
06:16And the huge challenge for our law enforcement is that young people, young individuals radicalize very fast.
06:25Sometimes it's a matter of weeks.
06:28Some will have mental issues or will just be vulnerable, as adolescents are generally.
06:34But they will not have any track record, any criminal track record.
06:37They will not meet physically.
06:39Very often they spend most of their time online.
06:41So it's very difficult for our law enforcement to capture this.
06:44And again, it comes back to the same point.
06:47It's a matter of exchanging good practices, sharing data, sharing information,
06:53but also very much monitoring the online environment, which is where much of this takes place.
06:58What are some of the, you mentioned earlier, the new threats?
07:02What are those new threats, if you could list some of them?
07:05Yes.
07:05So what we've seen over the years is an increase, a rise in the kind of violent right-wing extremism,
07:12also to agree violent left-wing extremism.
07:15But certainly we've seen that the violent right-wing extremism is very much creating communities online
07:24that lure young individuals into those networks
07:29and that then get into touch with all kinds of, some have called it sell-at-bar terrorism, sell-at
07:37-bar ideology, if you will,
07:38meaning that there are very often different parts of different ideologies that are put together
07:42in a sort of mishmash of very negative, very violent, let's say, motivations.
07:51And the new phenomenon, as we see it, is, and that's particularly worrying because this affects very young individuals,
07:59is what we call nihilistic extremist violence, which means that it's very often driven by an online community,
08:05which is very much violent extremist or accelerationist, meaning that they want to disrupt the whole of society,
08:12racism, is there misogynism.
08:15And these young people are, they don't have any ideological baggage, which is why it's called nihilistic,
08:22but they're very much drawn to extreme violence.
08:25And the kind of extreme violence that we're talking about is very much also generated,
08:28to come back to your earlier question about Iran, by the kind of conflicts that we're seeing.
08:32But that once again puts the youngest Europeans in utmost danger, once again, in terms of the age group.
08:39As the use of the internet has dramatically increased, I mean, young people spend about 4, 4.8 to 5
08:46hours a day on social media,
08:48and some research has indicated that young people who spend 5 to, between 5 and 8 hours a day on
08:54social media
08:55have a chance of mental health issues that's doubled.
09:00So, we have to be concerned about the exposure to social media and to the internet,
09:06which is not to say that it's all a negative thing, but it's a matter of educating youths,
09:10but it's also a matter of dialoguing with the platforms and the industry,
09:16to ensure that, you know, they take their responsibility in countering the kind of content
09:21that is leading to radicalisation of our young people.
09:25And that is, of course, a huge debate globally and in Europe,
09:28specifically regarding the access to some of the platforms for the younger Europeans.
09:32And with everything that you have been saying now about how much they are in danger
09:36and how much they could be radicalised as early as 12 years old
09:40and as quickly as within a few weeks, that's an argument in that debate.
09:45Definitely. And it raises the stakes.
09:49What I always say, and it's an important debate to have,
09:51because, you know, what we're often talking about,
09:53and we're all using those communications which are encrypted communications,
09:58which is very useful and very important because it protects our privacy,
10:01it protects us against cyberattacks and all of that.
10:03But there's also a downside, unless we organise it well.
10:07The downside at the moment is that our investigators, our law enforcement,
10:11does not have the access in the context of certain investigations
10:15to access those data and to explore the communication data between individuals,
10:22malign individuals, where there's terrorists, people plotting attacks or whatever,
10:26often criminal networks. And that is a problem.
10:29And the final question, 10 years since the Brussels attacks with the commemorations taking place
10:36in Brussels over the weekend, do you feel Brussels, the EU, being safer now 10 years past that?
10:43I would say I think we're in a much better place.
10:46And I say this also for two reasons.
10:48First of all, because I'm regularly speaking to law enforcement,
10:51the intelligence community, and they all share that assessment.
10:54That being said, we do face new threats, as you know.
10:59But we have also to be aware that even though we are in a better place today
11:06and we can never always exclude fully any major attack from happening again,
11:11but I think the chances of that happening are much lower today.
11:14Why? I think it's to the credit of our law enforcement that has been very agile
11:20in adapting to the evolving threat and is now still evolving, as I explained,
11:25to the kind of new threats that we're seeing.
11:28But we have to recognize that the threat has never really disappeared
11:32and it's unlikely to disappear in the short term.
11:35Why? Because it's very much driven by propaganda,
11:39by conflicts outside of this world, outside of our borders, as you'd say,
11:44that are very much feeding into our public narratives or our public debates
11:49and sometimes affecting also our young people.
11:51That's where we are today.
11:53Thank you very much.
11:54It's a pleasure. Thank you.
11:55Thank you.
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