PARIS - Two gruesome terrorist attacks that hit Spain last week confirm the transnational nature of the jihadist threat facing Europe, and highlight the need for more intensive and more structural collaboration among European Union (EU) member states to combat terrorism effectively.
The double attacks in Catalonia last Thursday and Friday, which claimed 15 lives and injured over 120 others, and the knife attack in Turku, Finland, were the latest to rub salt into the EU's wound, as France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the United Kingdom still struggle to recover from a number of bloody attacks since 2015.
To fight against this scourge that transcends borders, politicians and analysts have made repeated calls for more cooperation within the EU.
"This terrorism is long-term, so we need vigilance, prevention, deterrence and cooperation in Europe, which are the decisive elements in achieving a definitive fight against terrorism...It is a battle that we must fight jointly," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said last Friday in Barcelona.
Considerable efforts have been made in recent years in the area of such cooperation, particularly with regard to counter-terrorism measures.
This is the case, for example, with the Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive, adopted by the European Parliament in April 2016.

The PNR is a collection of data acquired by airlines when a passenger books a flight, accessible to EU member states for the purpose of "prevention, detection of serious criminal acts or acts of terrorism." (Xinhua)