European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Thursday on a broad strategy to combat the recruitment of Europeans into terrorist groups, the EU's top anti-terror official Gijs de Vries said. Ministers adopted the strategy at the start of two days of talks on counter-terror measures set for fast-track approval after the July London bombings. Most contentious of those plans are proposed EU standards to retain data such as e-mails and telephone call records. EU government leaders still have to finalize the approval at the Dec. 15-16 summit, the Associated Press reported. Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clark, whose country holds the EU presidency has set an end-of-year deadline for the package's approval. "It is very important that everyone undertakes the maximum effort to find a compromise," said De Vries, who has warned EU governments that failing to introduce the 12 measures would hamper European efforts to hunt down terrorists.
