European Union Foreign Ministers met on January 19 in Brussels. A week after gunmen killed 17 people in France and an alleged terror plot in Belgium, Foreign Ministers of the 28-member States of the European Union on Monday, January 19, 2015 in Brussels discussed common strategies to counter terrorism. The Ministers debated a range of options to be submitted for endorsement during a special leaders’ summit on terrorism on February 12, 2015. The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini called for a broad alliance to tackle terror including Muslim nations. Federica Mogherini stressed the need for more cooperation both with Muslim countries and internally within the European Union. Ahead of the Brussels Talks, Mogherini said, "The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris, but is also spreading in many other parts of the world, starting from Muslim countries. We need to strengthen our way of co-operating together, first of all with Arab countries and then internally. We need to share information more, we need to co-operate more," BBC quoted. The Foreign Policy Chief further said, “We will discuss with the secretary general how to increase the level of co-operation... we need an alliance, a dialogue."

Speaking during the opening of the talks, the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond reportedly said, "The Muslim countries of the world are the ones who have suffered the greatest burden of terrorism and they will continue to be in the frontlines. We have to work closely with them to protect both those countries and the EU countries."