Brussels, 17/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - With a view to the extraordinary Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday following the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States, ÖVP MEP Hubert Picker has called on the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Ministers to cooperate more closely with the EU's Foreign, Defence and Transport Ministers in order to fight terrorism more effectively. He also called for Europol's workforce to be increased since, as he pointed out, Europol's headquarters in The Hague only has twelve members of staff at the moment to deal with fighting terrorism. EU Member States should, according to Mr Pirker, immediately commit themselves to providing Europol with information in their possession since there is little point Europol having the fight against terrorism as one of its responsibilities if Member States doe not provide it with the information. The Austrian Conservative said Europol should also set up a special committee to fight "Islamic" terrorism.
In a press release, German PES MEP Ozan Ceyhun (who is of Turkish stock), welcomed the German Interior Minister, Otto Schily's intransigence against "fundamentalist and dangerous" organisations operating in Germany. The MEP said he was in favour of other measures aiming to reinforce internal security (like the controversial digital fingerprinting), as long as they were introduced throughout Europe in the same conditions.