Brussels, 25/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Wednesday 25 November, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, called for European unity to tackle the plague of terrorism, in a formal speech in the hemicycle of the European Parliament.
“No country is able to tackle terrorism on its own”, said Mattarella. He said that “this battle” against violence and for security and liberty obliges the Europeans to show “unity” and to work together over the long term to develop a genuinely European common defence and security policy. “Europe can support the necessary convergence at international level on Syria, Iraq and Libya, by seeking shared solutions to oppose the forces of disorder and terror”, he added, referring to the Russian aircraft shot down by the Turkish army on the border between Turkey and Syria.
Stating that Europe, which has been “wounded”, is going through “particularly difficult” times, particularly after the attacks in Paris on 13 November, the Italian President expressed Italy's “total and unconditional” solidarity with France and the families of the victims. He paid tribute to Valeria Solesin, the Italian student at the Sorbonne who was killed in the attack on the Bataclan stadium, which was echoed by the President of the EP, Germany's Martin Schulz.
Sticking to Italy's traditional line of unfailing support to European integration, Mattarella stressed that ever since its creation, Europe has supported the emergence of a “European demos” and a “common heritage” due to an increasing fusion between the national societies. He praised the single space of freedom, which must not be jeopardised, whilst recognising that the Schengen zone had been put under pressure due to the migration challenge and the terrorist threat. He said that safeguarding this zone will require more cooperation with a view, amongst other things, to a better management of the external borders of the EU. This cooperation should materialise in the revision of the Dublin agreements on asylum which, he said, have been “overtaken by reality”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)