Attackers struck 'the Capital of Europe' but Europe can't strike back
The attacks in Brussels on Tuesday struck at the heart of the European Union, with blasts targeting the international airport and a metro station in the shadow of the glass- and-steel government buildings that is home to thousands of lawmakers from 28 countries.
But in the wake of the attacks, many questioned the effectiveness of the union's response.
Despite promised action to weed out extremist groups across member states, EU doesn't have a military force or, seemingly, the ability to share intelligence and prevent attacks. Furthermore, the union seems to be fraying at the edges, with some member states debating an exit.
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In the UK, politicians didn't waste time in using the attacks to score political points over EU membership.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel wrote in a tweet on Wednesday that "the fate of Europe...is peace and security."
Michel is meeting with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to discuss how to move forward following the attacks.
But the recent attacks in their countries raise questions about the EU's ability to ensure "peace and security" for its member states.
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Investigators are still piecing together the details, but Belgian federal prosecutors suggested the attackers had links to the Paris attacks. At least one of the suspect was on the police radar. Turkish officials said they had deported one of the men involved in the attack over fears of his links to a jihadi group.
Member states are still arguing internally about how to deal with its internal and external borders. And, collectively, there seems little agreement on how to deal with European-born citizens who return to Europe after fighting for extremists groups in Syria and Iraq.
Just three weeks before the attacks in Brussels, an internal memo sent by the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator's office unpacked some of the problems facing policy makers.
The memo detailed huge gaps in security, such as the fact that not all EU member states have established an electronic connection to Interpol tools on all of their external border crossing points, meaning they don't have immediate access to international arrest warrants.
"While progress is being made in all areas," read the memo, "further urgent improvements to information sharing and border security are necessary."
"While progress is being made in all areas," read the memo, "further urgent improvements to information sharing and border security are necessary."
The memo also noted that "information sharing still does not reflect the threat."
The EU relies on member states to share the names of suspected radicals who return after fighting in Syria and Iraq, but the system appears to be full of gaps.
"Our adversaries are disciplined and coordinated. We need to be much more so to fight them," wrote Matthew Levitt of Washington Institute for Near East policy, the European Union last week.
Policy discussions about EU-wide security measures echoed on the streets of Brussels on Wednesday.
"There are those who want to destroy the republic and destroy democracy, and I think that they want to destroy the European union and it's principles and values and ideals," said Roi Antonopolou who, with Constantine Kalentis, was visiting the European Parliament when the attacks took place. The two are members of a Greek delegation set to discuss the upcoming Rio Summer Olympics Games.
Given that the attack struck at the core of what the EU stands for, Antonopolou said she thinks it's important that it's met with a firm response.
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"If Europe doesn’t do anything at this time, maybe they'll be able to" conduct more attacks ,she said.
Kalentis believes that increased surveillance and a coordinated military response from the EU isn't the way forward. Instead, he believes better education and integration programs for foreign-born Muslims is the way forward.
"Change comes from within,” Kalentis said.
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Megan Specia was Mashable's Assistant Real-Time News Editor and joined the team in September 2014. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of New Hampshire after growing up in the Jersey 'burbs. She made her way to New York via a four year stopover in Dublin. Megan previously worked as a journalist and editor at Storyful in both Dublin and New York. Before all of that, though, her claim to fame was as head cake arranger and purveyor of all things sweet at Queen of Tarts cafe in Dublin, where she developed a serious addiction to macarons.
