BERLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Ansgar Heveling, president of the German parliament's committee for the interior, warned on Friday that Thursday's Barcelona terror attack highlighted persistent flaws in European security cooperation.
The cooperation of security authorities and their data exchange programs were far from satisfactory, Heveling told German radio station Deutschlandfunk. It was time for European institutions to implement the initiatives proposed by Germany and France.
Berlin and Paris have suggested much tighter European security cooperation in the wake of Britain's Brexit vote, culminating in the formation of a European Defense Union.
"We must realize: Terrorism in Europe is far from defeated, in particular Islamic terrorism," the German politician said. The risk of similar attacks prevailed in Germany and throughout other countries in Europe.
According to Heveling, the danger was even more acute now due to the increasing desperation of the so-called "Islamic State" in the Middle East after the terror militia's loss of its Iraqi capital Mosul.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Barcelona's terror attack that left 13 people dead on Thursday night when a van was driven into a crowd of pedestrians on Barcelona's popular Las Ramblas avenue during the peak of the Catalonian city's tourist season.
