Prime Minister gives interview to Thomson Reuters news agency

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has looked back at the Brussels attacks of 22 March 2016 in an interview one year on, saying that although there was no such thing as zero risk, the Belgian Government had got the situation under control with the security measures it had taken and would continue to take.

He pointed out that over the past two years, many other terrorist attacks had been foiled. Indeed, never before had the Belgian courts managed to hand down as many convictions to terrorist organisations as they had recently.

He said that the democracies of today had to defend themselves against the enemies of democracy, and this was one of the reasons why Europe had a crucial role to play, particularly in the exchange of information. Among other things, the Member States of the European Union needed to harmonise their databases to improve their effectiveness. 

Interview