EU foreign ministers have discussed setting up a new network of European security agents abroad as they seek a united response to the threat from militant Islamists following the recent attacks in Paris.
Today's meeting aimed to lay the groundwork for an EU leaders' summit on 12-13 February.
That summit will cement the bloc's strategy to deal with young European Muslims heading to Middle East war zones or returning radicalised from the region.
One idea is to place European security officials in EU overseas missions to collect and share information on the terrorism threat.
"It is a matter of having people on the ground that can liaise at the same level with security agents in the countries where we have delegations," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
Priorities also include a crackdown on arms trafficking and support for police in the Middle East and North Africa.
Other priorities are stopping EU citizens leaving to fight abroad and curbing radical Islam on the internet to prevent them bringing violence back home.
In the next few days, interior ministers will consider a plan to withdraw the travel documents of EU citizens looking to go to Syria or Iraq, or of those seen as a threat in Europe.
The rules underpinning the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, which removes border controls among most EU countries, could be used to empower guards on external borders to undertake systematic checks of EU citizens arriving from a third country.
The Paris attacks and a foiled plot in Belgium to murder police officers across the country have also given new impetus to unblock EU plans to oblige EU countries to set up an EU-wide passenger list to collect data from flights to and from the EU.
The proposal, which would include names, phone numbers and credit card details of passengers entering or leaving the EU, was put forward by the European Commission in 2011 but has been stuck in the European Parliament over privacy concerns.
Speaking before today's meeting, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said strong partnership between EU member states, developing countries and the Middle East was needed to combat terrorism.
He also said that "terrorism does not respect borders".
The ministers also agreed there would be no change in the bloc's Russia policy, including sanctions.
Hamas criticises EU terror appeal as 'immoral'
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has criticised an EU appeal to keep the organisation on a terror blacklist as "immoral".
Hamas was removed from the list following an order handed down by the General Court of the European Union in December.
Describing the appeal as immoral, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said it reflects the EU's "total bias in favour of the Israeli occupation".
He added that the decision provides Israel "with the cover for its crimes against the Palestinian people".
EU foreign ministers today decided to appeal the decision taken on 17 December 2014.
The ruling said that the blacklisting of Hamas in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet.
Hamas, which has dominated Gaza since 2007, had appealed against its inclusion on the blacklist on several grounds.
The United States has urged the EU to keep up its sanctions on Hamas, saying the US position had "not changed" and Hamas is still a "designated foreign terrorist organisation."
