EU needs to regain its reputation as a safe, secure place

In the decade up to 2014, the European Union could claim to be safer than the rest of the world, mainly because the number of terrorist attack victims decreased in the EU even as it increased globally. From 2009 to 2013, according to EU figures, 38 people died in terrorist attacks in the EU. In 2014, the number of terrorist victims within the EU was four, although many Europeans were killed in terrorist attacks in conflict zones outside the union.

But last year, things changed tragically: 151 people were killed and more than 360 injured in terrorist attacks in the EU, says the annual report of the European Police Office, the EU's law enforcement agency that started monitoring terrorist activities after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

This year, the attacks have spread to Belgium, with explosions at the Brussels airport and metro in March killing 32 people. In July, an Islamic fanatic killed 84 people in the French Riviera city of Nice by driving a truck through a crowd watching Bastille's Day fireworks. And smaller-scale terrorist attacks, too, have occurred from time to time in other EU countries.