In a press conference following the Counter-terrorism Coordination Committee meeting, the Minister of Home Affairs, Jordi Jané, announced stronger security measures in large-scale public events. In this respect, he assured that “the task of the Counter-terrorism Operational Program (COP) will intensify in the coming months with reinforcements across all scheduled public events”.

 

The Minister also stated that the “intensification of preventive tasks carried out by the Mossos d’Esquadra would include more agents on the ground to cover a wider security perimeter”. Jané also assured that there would be threat assessments every week to analyze the likelihood of a terrorist attack in specific events considered to be at risk.

 

In nearly two years since the implementation of the COP, the Mossos d’Esquadra have carried out several security operations in various events across the country, including 23 concerts, with no notable incident. However, following the tragic events in the Manchester Arena earlier this week, Jané announced an €11 million increase in the Catalan Police budget to be used in the global fight against radical Islamic terrorism and intensify security measures.

 

Despite an increment being considered during today’s meeting, the Home Affairs minister stated that the security threat level would remain at 4 over 5.

 

The Minister appeared before the press together with the Director General of the Catalan Police, Albert Batlle and the Mossos d’Esquadra Chief of Police, Josep Lluís Trapero.