EU leaders agree on measures to counter terrorism

Brussels, June 23 (IANS) The European Union (EU) leaders on Thursday agreed on measures to counter terrorism, European Council President Donald Tusk said.

Tusk said terrorism, "which is still a major threat", was the first topic the leaders discussed at the ongoing two-day summit, Xinhua news agency reported.

EU leaders agreed to deepen efforts against foreign terrorist fighters who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the extremist groups in the region.

"We want to finalise works on the new border information sharing systems this year," Tusk said at a press conference.

In addition, they decided to work with the industry to remove extremist content online that is deemed to incite terrorism.

"We are calling on social media companies to do whatever is necessary to prevent the spread of terrorist material on the internet," Tusk added.

On defence issue, EU leaders agreed on the need to set up permanent European cooperation in defence.

"Within three months, Member States will agree a common list of criteria and commitments, together with concrete capability projects, in order to take this cooperation off the ground," Tusk said.

At the summit, the leaders are also expected to discuss migration, economic and trade issues.