UPI: EU doubles homeland security budget
UPI reports that the European Union has doubled its homeland security budget:
EU leaders agreed to more than double the bloc’s budget for homeland security measures at the end of a marathon meeting in Brussels Saturday.
Spending on policies to combat illegal immigration and human trafficking, protect the Union’s borders, fight terrorism and organized crime and develop EU judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters will increase from $720 million in 2007 to $1,666 million in 2013.
While other fields, such as agriculture, will see their budgets cut during the next seven-year budgetary cycle, spending on “freedom, security and justice” will rise by 15 percent a year over the period — the largest increase per policy sector.
This is a positive development, and shows that the Europeans are matching their tougher rhetoric on counterterrorism and homeland security with real action, and enhancing their ability, even amid all of the recent friction about rendition and torture, to be a credible partner to the United States in the war on terror.
