European Commissioner for Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said co-operation needed to be “stepped up significantly”.
Mr Avramopoulos said: “I wonder if it is finally the time to be ambitious and bold, to overcome the security taboos of the past and finally work in order to build a European intelligence system.”
Speaking before the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Mr Avramopoulos argued that had there been better co-ordination, terror attacks like those in Spain and Finland could have been averted.
He said: “If there was co-operation, information sharing and exchanging, maybe some of these tragic events could have been predicted and prevented.
“But let’s make one more political remark, I’m afraid that the deep state still resists.”
His comments echoed those of Europol chief Rob Wainwright who has called for more data sharing between the police and intelligence services to fight terrorism.
He said: “We know that many of the attackers have a criminal background.
“Let’s open up the databases to cross-check the information.”
He said police are doing a better job of sharing data than two years ago but added that “we need to go further.”
Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain, killing 13 people at time and injuring at least 130 others, two of whom died I’m hospital in the following weeks.
The 22—year-old fled the attack on foot, then killed another man and stole his car to make his escape.
Nine hours after the Barcelona attack, five men thought to be members of the same terrorist cell drove into pedestrians in nearby Cambrils, killing one woman and injuring six others. All five attackers were shot and killed by police.
The night before the Barcelona attack, an explosion destroyed a house in the Spanish town of Alcanar and killed two members of the terrorist cell, including a 40-year-old Moroccan imam thought to be behind the atrocity.
The home had over 120 gas canisters inside, which police believe the cell was attempting to make into one large bomb or three smaller bombs to be placed in three vans which they had rented but which they accidentally detonated.
The following day, two people were killed and eight more wounded when a Moroccan immigrant went on the rampage in the Finnish town of Turku.
The 18-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene after being shot in the leg by officers.