EU states must do more vs terrorism-justice chief

BRUSSELS, May 10 (Reuters) The European Union's 25 countries are failing to cooperate properly with the bloc's agencies to combat terrorism, the EU's justice commissioner today said.

''The flow of information is still insufficient,'' Franco Frattini said in a letter addressed to the bloc's justice and home affairs ministers and the European Parliament.

He was referring to cooperation between EU member states and Europe's police agency, Europol, which participated in 20 terrorism investigations in 2005.

Frattini also said EU countries were failing to cooperate enough through Eurojust, the EU's agency aimed at helping the bloc's prosecutors exchange information.

He said EU countries needed to work faster on regulations aimed at exchanging information directly between their police authorities.

The European Commission urged EU countries to give up some of their vetoes in criminal justice and police cooperation, to speed up the adoption of European laws.

Frattini told a news conference after talks with the EU presidency and a senior EU lawmaker that the fight against terrorism was a priority for European citizens, adding: ''We have to deliver.'' At the same news conference, EU anti-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries and the chair of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, Jean-Marie Cavada, supported the Commission's call to give up some vetoes.

REUTERS SY BD1951