Brussels, 12/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Tuesday, the European Parliament decided to hold a special Conference of the Presidents on Wednesday at 17: 00 hrs (President Nicole Fontaine and the Presidents of the EP's political groupings) open to all MEPs under the emergency procedure that makes it possible for the EP to meet without convening an extraordinary plenary session. The President of the European Council, Guy Verhofstadt, the President of the Council of the EU, Louis Michel, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and the External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten, will be attending.
Following Nicole Fontaine (see p.5 of yesterday's EUROPE), several MEPs have already spoken about the tragedy that has struck the United States, saying that is had also hit at the heart of European and all democratic countries. The EP's Foreign Affairs Committee published a statement: "We join our colleagues in the US Congress and all American people in their deep sorrow … This terrorist act is directed against the entire international community of democracies and their citizens. We stand together with the USA in the fight against international terrorism. At the same time, we should develop a joint policy of all democracies against any state hiding or supporting terrorism and we should aim to overcome together the most burning conflicts in the world. No political reason justifies terrorism".
The President of the EP's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, the UK Liberal Democrat Graham Watson, noted that only last week Parliament adopted his report calling for the "introduction of a European search and arrest warrant" (see EUROPE of 6 September, p.10). Mr Watson said, "It is now evident that not only the EU Member States should step up action to combat terrorism, but that there should also be closer cooperation with other states in order to try and prevent such barbaric attacks in future".
The EEP/ED President, Hans Gert Pöttering, said that in future, attention should focus on how to prevent such terrorist acts, and this would require a "new dimension" in European and international cooperation. The PES President, Enrique Baron, said that those who had perpetrated the attacks must realise that they have failed to meet their political goals and would not find refuge anywhere. Francis Wurtz, President of United Left/Nordic Green Left, said that the criminal violence and extreme cruelty that characterised this terrifying catastrophe posed a challenge to humanity itself. Together with their Vice-President Nelly Maes, the Co-Presidents of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Heidi Hautala and Paul Lannoye, have written to the US Ambassador to the EU, Richard Morningstar, expressing their heartfelt condolences to the people of America following the "senseless terrorist attack". The MEP on the Bonino List, Olivier Dupuis, said that the roots of the tragedy could also be found in the deeply anti-Arab and anti-Islam culture cultivated in Europe and the West by supporting the worst dictators in the Arab and Islamic world (he mentioned Syria, Egypt - with its inquisition of gays, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan - where women are seen as an inferior race, Pakistan - friend of the Taliban, Tunisia - where state gangsterism becomes stronger every day, the terrorist psychopaths in power in Tripoli and Baghdad, the corrupt Algerian generals, and others).