[JURIST] Europol [official website], the EU law enforcement organization that handles criminal intelligence, presented its EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report TE-SAT 2007 [text, PDF; press release] to the European Parliament Tuesday, providing an overview of terrorism in the 27-member European Union [official website, JURIST news archive]. According to the report, 706 individuals were arrested in 15 member states on suspicion of terrorism offenses in 2006, while 498 terrorist attacks were reportedly carried in 11 member states. Separatists and nationalists in the Basque region of Spain and on the French island of Corsica were responsible for most of the attacks. EU officials say they would like to extend Europol's authority in the future to investigate other criminal issues. AP has more.

In 2006, the European Commission [official website] urged EU member states [JURIST report] to implement compatible criminal law procedures in the wake of a study conducted by the University of Maastricht showing how drastically different legal policies among the member states allowed some crimes to slip through the cracks. In particular, the 2006 study noted differences regarding how national police and courts in different EU states deal with terrorist suspects and criminal charges.