Brussels, 26/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - European Commission Vice-President, Loyola de Palacio spoke on Tuesday of her consternation following the Air France Concorde crash that left 113 people dead. She again stressed the need to set up, "in the coming months, a European Air Safety Agency" to guarantee "a common level of safety within the European Union and in other European countries", like Switzerland.
Many other personalities addressed messages of condolence to Chancellor Schroeder and the Speakers of the Bundestag and Bundesrat. In her letter, the President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, wrote, for the attention of the families of the victims, that "Europe as a whole associates itself with their grief and accompanies them in the immense pain that has just befallen them". For their part, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, and the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Lord Russell-Johnson declare: "The loss of more than 100 lives is a tragedy, and we can only draw hope that such accidents and their appalling consequences will lead to even more rigorous safety and security measures being taken so that we can try to protect against such horrendous events in future".