Gijs de Vries

I have never come across a technology that doesn't change. This is inevitable. You have to adapt your systems as technology develops.

— Gijs de Vries

Muslim organisations tend to have a low level of organisation. The communities in Europe are quite diverse.

— Gijs de Vries

The idea is to have global standards. There is so much travel that if you just had a regional standard, it would…

— Gijs de Vries

Ultimately, freedom and democracy are stronger than fear and tyranny.

— Gijs de Vries

If information ends up in the wrong hands, the lives of people very often are immediately at risk.

— Gijs de Vries

Look at Iraq; look at Afghanistan, where at great personal physical risk people have gone to the polls and have rejected the…

— Gijs de Vries

In situations of military conflict, civil strife, lawlessness, bad governance, and human rights violations, terrorists find it easier to hide, train and…

— Gijs de Vries

The European Borders Agency in Warsaw has been created to help border forces in Europe cooperate more.

— Gijs de Vries

The violent radicals do not legitimately represent the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims.

— Gijs de Vries

It's important that we work very closely with moderate Muslim forces locally, nationally and internationally.

— Gijs de Vries

In the fight against terrorism, national agencies keep full control over their police forces, security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.

— Gijs de Vries

The key to tackling Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism from the Islamist community is in the hands of moderate Muslims.

— Gijs de Vries

If you combat an international phenomenon, it is indispensable to share information internationally.

— Gijs de Vries

In intelligence work, there are limits to the amount of information one can share. Confidentiality is essential.

— Gijs de Vries

Terrorists have failed to trigger mass conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe. We should draw strength from that fact.

— Gijs de Vries

Europe has a long and tragic history of mostly domestic terrorism.

— Gijs de Vries

There is a series of sectors which could be severely disrupted by terrorist attacks, particularly if they were to happen in several…

— Gijs de Vries

The majority of the world's Muslims do not believe that terrorism is a legitimate strategy or that Islam is incompatible with democracy.

— Gijs de Vries

Police forces collect information to be used in a public court to get people convicted. Security services gather information that does not…

— Gijs de Vries

We are familiar with terrorism. But indiscriminate, cross-border, religiously motivated terrorism is new.

— Gijs de Vries

We have an integrated picture of the threat from outside and from within that is provided not only to our foreign ministers…

— Gijs de Vries

Terrorists always have the advantage of surprise.

— Gijs de Vries

Indiscriminate attacks on civilians ought, under all circumstances, to be illegal in war as in peacetime.

— Gijs de Vries

The central role in the fight against terrorism is with national authorities.

— Gijs de Vries

You can't get closer to the heart of national sovereignty than national security and intelligence services.

— Gijs de Vries