November 16, 2015•Update: November 17, 2015
BRUSSELS
Belgium’s foreign minister has said countries need to share more intelligence information to tackle terrorism.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, Didier Reynders said: "We try to exchange more and more intelligence; it’s the only way to find people with such a high level of radicalization."
His comments come a day after Belgian prosecutors said seven people were detained after raids in Brussels in connection to the Friday attacks in Paris which killed 132 people. Two of the Paris assailants had been living in Belgium, the prosecutor said.
"We arrested a lot of French people in Brussels and there are many people crossing all the time from one city to another," Reynders said, adding: "We have 30,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq from the moment."
Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in Europe, the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries reported in October last year.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has also called for stricter rules on the EU’s Schengen area and a faster implementation of the Passenger Name Record, which forces airlines to share passenger data with governments within the European Union.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon after a meeting at the interior ministry in Paris on Sunday, Cazeneuve said: "We need more checks at European borders."
The two ministers said French and Belgian security authorities will work closely to tackle terrorism.
