Europe marked its annual Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism on 11 March with a ceremony in Brussels, ten years after the 22 March 2016 attacks in the Belgian capital.
The day was established by the EU after the Madrid train bombings in 2004, and is held each year to honour people killed or injured in terrorist attacks and those who survived them, the European Commission emphasised in the a statement on Wednesday.
Opening remarks at this year’s event were delivered by EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner and Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
The programme included testimonies from victims and survivors of several attacks, including those in Brussels and Nice in 2016, the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, and the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.
EU work on preventing radicalisation
The Commission highlighted the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation, which it described as an initiative bringing together practitioners, policymakers and researchers working on preventing radicalisation — a process in which people can be drawn into extremist beliefs that may lead to violence.
The Hub is designed to share knowledge and support the development and implementation of policies intended to prevent radicalisation in Europe and in “priority” non-EU countries, the Commission said.
The European Commission also noted that it presented a new counterterrorism agenda in February 2026 under the name “ProtectEU”, setting out plans to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism.
