Gijs de Vries

“The European Borders Agency in Warsaw has been created to help border forces in Europe cooperate more.”

“Our strategy should be to strengthen the hand of moderate Muslims.”

“We remain vulnerable. There is no such thing as 100 percent security against terrorism.”

“Look at Iraq; look at Afghanistan, where at great personal physical risk people have gone to the polls and have rejected the appeal from Bin Laden and his allies to stay at home.”

“There is a series of sectors which could be severely disrupted by terrorist attacks, particularly if they were to happen in several member states simultaneously.”

“If you combat an international phenomenon, it is indispensable to share information internationally.”

“We're still stymied by the old stand-off between those who wish to fight terrorism and resistance fighters.”

“The violent radicals do not legitimately represent the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims.”

“We are familiar with terrorism. But indiscriminate, cross-border, religiously motivated terrorism is new.”

“I have never come across a technology that doesn't change. This is inevitable. You have to adapt your systems as technology develops.”

“Ultimately, freedom and democracy are stronger than fear and tyranny.”

“There are no automatic links between poverty and terrorism. Among millions of poor people in the world, only a few turn to terrorism.”

“The idea is to have global standards. There is so much travel that if you just had a regional standard, it would probably ultimately have to be changed.”

“If information ends up in the wrong hands, the lives of people very often are immediately at risk.”

“Indiscriminate attacks on civilians ought, under all circumstances, to be illegal in war as in peacetime.”

“Europe has a long and tragic history of mostly domestic terrorism.”

“I remain optimistic. What we've seen in Europe and the rest of the world is that freedom has a much stronger attraction than radical fundamentalism.”

“Terrorists have failed in what is arguably al Qaida's most important objective - to trigger revolutions.”

“The central role in the fight against terrorism is with national authorities.”

“In intelligence work, there are limits to the amount of information one can share. Confidentiality is essential.”