The Polish presidency convened a joint meeting of the two Council working groups on terrorism, the Terrorism Working Party (TWP) and COTER after the tragic events in Norway on 22 July 2011. The goal was to exchange information and analysis and to start the process of drawing the lessons of this tragedy in order to better prevent and respond to such attacks in the future.

The TWP brings together member states experts for the internal aspects of terrorism mainly representing ministries of interior, while in COTER (Working Party on Terrorism [International Aspects]) experts from foreign affairs ministries focus on the external aspects of terrorism. The main aim of the meeting under the EU Polish Presidency was to exchange information and analysis and to start the process of drawing the lessons of this tragedy in order to better prevent and respond to such attacks in the future. First, representatives of the Norwegian authorities informed the meeting about the events and the ongoing investigation. This was followed by a debate including an assessment of the tools and mechanisms used in the fight against terrorism - both existing ones and those under preparation.

The experts agreed that in confronting the threat of a terrorist attack, regardless of its underlying motivation, the effective exchange of information is vital. The 'lone-wolf terrorism', represented by terrorists that are self-radicalised (e.g. through the internet) with no obvious attachment to any terrorist organisation, seems to require increasing attention. The importance of strengthening response capacity was another issue that was highlighted.

During the meeting, the experts stressed that the EU has always rejected violence regardless of the motivation - be it right wing or left wing extremist, separatist or religiously motivated terrorism. It was noted that, as the Oslo attacks have shown once again, terrorism has nothing to do with any particular religion or belief.