Border security

Europe Struggles to Harden Security in Wake of Attacks

Shortly after the terror attacks here a year ago, European leaders pledged to close a legal loophole that militants could exploit to pass through border crossings without security checks.

A year later, negotiators in Brussels are still quarreling over how to change the problematic law, which forbids border guards from conducting systematic security checks on European citizens. France and some other governments, fearing the return of European-born jihadists from Syria, have grown increasingly exasperated.

“We have been quite irritated at the pace,” said one European diplomat involved in the talks.

Faced with repeated attacks by Islamic State and its sympathizers, the European Union is struggling to find decisive fixes for its myriad security vulnerabilities. Efforts have been hamstrung by the bloc’s complex decision-making procedures, privacy concerns and a cumbersome counterterrorism apparatus that relies on coordination between the region’s 28 governments.