EU minsters agree on need to tackle youth violence

Youth violence is to become a topic of discussion in all European Union member states, a group of EU interior ministers agreed at informal talks Sunday in Berlin, dpa reported.

Four days after a teenager shot 15 people in a school rampage in southern Germany, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday that he would write a letter to the Czech EU presidency requesting that youth violence be specifically addressed within all 27 EU member states.

The decision was the upshoot of a meeting in Berlin with Schaeuble's counterparts from Poland, France, Italy, Spain and Britain. Investigations into reasons for youth violence and the role of the internet were already on the agenda before the murderous events earlier in the week.

The new US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was also invited to the talks, to discuss trans-Atlantic cooperation. The day's topics included the fight against crime and terrorism, ease of travel between countries and data protection issues.

Prior to the talks, Napolitano had said European discussions on the takeup of Guantanamo inmates were premature. US President Barack Obama signed an order days after taking office order the closure of the prison within a year, and the US is the process of evaluating the status of the inmates.

To date there has been no decision about Europe accepting a set number of detainees, Napolitano told German Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

The US administration is currently evaluating individual cases, she said, adding that this was the first step before making any further considerations. Napolitano was reticent on questions about demands that the extradition claims of terror suspects should be investigated or compensated.

She told the newspaper that Obama had made it clear that, in some respects, he would conduct the fight against terrorism fundamentally differently from his predecessor. On issues regarding the past, she said Obama was more reserved.