European Network of Experts on Radicalisation

European Network of Experts on Radicalisation was a successor body to the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation. Unlike its predecessor the administration of the group was contracted out to a third party provider. The winner of the tender was a small company called Diamorphos trading as The Change Institute.

Activities

The radicalisation phenomenon in Europe: present challenges and future trajectories - February 2009

The European Network of Experts on Radicalisation (ENER) managed by The Change Institute (London) and supported by the European Commission organised a seminar entitled 'The radicalisation phenomenon in Europe: present challenges and future trajectories' in February 2009. The ENER consists of a network of leading experts on radicalisation from different academic disciplines who are renowned specialists in their field. Focusing on violent radicalisation and extremism that leads to acts of terrorism, the work of ENER aims to deepen understanding of the violent radicalisation phenomenon in order to enhance counter-terrorism and preventive approaches being pursued at EU and Member State levels.

Members

The full list of members has never been disclosed by the European Commission despite multiple requests.

An initial request claimed that the Commission did not possess a list of members:

We regret to inform you that no such list exists. Indeed, as specified in Article 2(3) of Regulation 1049/2001, the right of access as defined in that Regulation applies only to existing documents in the possession of the institution. Given that no such document has been identified, the Commission is not in a position to handle your request.:For the sake of transparency, and as information further to your request for access to documents, we however inform you that some members of the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation became members of the future ENER; the names of these members are publicly available; to this aim, we invite you to consult "A concise Report prepared by the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation - Radicalisation Processes Leading to Acts of Terrorism"

According to a further response to an Access to Documents request the following names of members were released:

Please find underneath the list of members of ENER we 1) were able to find contact details of, 2) replied to us in time for this reply and 3) agreed for their name to be disclosed.

The treatment of personal data is dealt with under the Regulation 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (see under http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2001.008.01.0001.01.ENG ) According to this regulation 45/2001, ENER members were free to disagree to their name being disclosed.

• Professor Andrew Silke | Professor Magnus Ranstorp | Professor Max Taylor | Dr Amel Boubekeur | Dr Mona Sheikh | Tufyal Choudhury | Professor Frank Bovenkerk | Professor Jytte Klausen | Dr John Horgan | Professor Rik Coolsaet | Mostapha Hilali

In a further response the Commission stated 'that ENER encompassed 24 members' and that 'one member declined disclosing credentials and 12 members didn't reply within deadline.'

Internet searches reveal that the following individuals have publicly claimed to be members of the group.

• Peter Neumann
• Sara Silvestri
• John Esposito

Thus fourteen names have been identified, leaving another ten unknown.

Further enquiries revealed the following people stated on ENER publications to have been 'Expert Network Contributors':

• From the Change Institute: Rokhsana Fiaz | Will Hammonds | Jagtar Singh
• Experts: Bob Lambert

Termination

The European Commission has stated both that 'the ENER contract expired in 2010' and that the ENER 'was terminated end of 2011'.