A few hours after narrowly failing to murder Margaret Thatcher in the Brighton bombing, the IRA calmly announced: “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once – you will have to be lucky always.”

This is the grim reality of our fight against Islamic State. More times than not, our security services have intervened to prevent terrorist atrocities. But the murders last Friday in Paris change everything. François Hollande was right to say we are now at war. Isis has certainly been at war with us for many years. Driven by a perversion of Islam, they are fanatics whose sole objective is to kill as many of us as possible. There will be no negotiation. We can and must take immediate measures to lower the risks of further attacks. It’s time for a new European approach that reflects these realities.

First, our security services need to work together much more closely. Following the attacks in Paris, it’s been reported the French security services currently employ about 3,000 counter-intelligence personnel. Yet they are trying to monitor 5,000 suspected terrorists and it takes on average 25 people to provide complete surveillance per suspect. It doesn’t take a mathematician to realise the flaws in this.

Europe must act, by Christmas, to secure its external borders

Many other national agencies face similar discrepancies. The European Union has an agency responsible for satellite navigation systems. It has an agency responsible for the development of fusion energy. What we don’t have is a European agency capable of sharing intelligence; this has to change.

The reality is that terrorists know no borders, while our 28 national state security agencies cannot cross borders. Investigations are still under way, but it now seems these terrorists had links to Belgium and elsewhere. Unconfirmed reports suggest at least one may have travelled from Syria, through Greece, and that the weapons used may have come from Germany. It’s time for a European security agency to ensure intelligence is shared more effectively.

Secondly, EU countries need to face up to the fact that we are failing to deal with radicalisation effectively. Here, it’s time EU countries put in place effective ways to learn from each other. The root causes of radicalisation are complex. Disaffection, lack of self-worth, poverty and discrimination all play a role. Some countries and regions have had great successes, others less so. My country, Belgium, in particular has had significant problems with radicalisation, which must now be addressed. But we should form a common strategy, in cooperation with leaders of the Islamic community as necessary, which reflects this complexity and cuts off the supply of young recruits to Isis.

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Thirdly, a political settlement to the crisis in Syria must now be quickly delivered, based on the agreement made on Saturday in Vienna. This means the international community must now push all armed groups in Syria, including Bashar al-Assad’s army, to deliver on the agreement, implement a ceasefire and launch negotiations towards a political transition and an inclusive, non-sectarian government without Assad. This also means that Russia must stop targeting moderate rebels and find an understanding with the US-led anti-Isis coalition on common targets of their air campaigns. Based on this, all the powers gathered in the international Syrian support group must urgently develop a strategy to defeat Isis militarily, to bring peace and stability to Syria as a whole.

Last of all, Europe must act, by Christmas, to secure its external borders. This can be achieved by developing a European coastguard and border protection force. The European commission has a plan; it needs to be implemented now. No one should be allowed into Europe until they are registered and at least a basic background check has been completed. A huge humanitarian response will be needed in parallel, to meet the needs of those approaching EU borders. We must also take forward proposals to provide legal routes for third country nationals who want to come and work in Europe, so we can control migratory flows.

We don’t now need endless meetings, roadmaps or green papers. EU leaders have so far failed to agree a common adequate response to the refugee crisis, this must not be repeated. We need to implement a plan to safeguard our way of life and our citizens now. If we fail, there might not be a Europe left to save.