Strasbourg, 03/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - "We'll do all that is possible for aiding the millions of flood victims", said the President of the Council, Berthel Haarder on Tuesday in Strasbourg, where he stressed to the Parliamentary plenary that many people had lost everything and that the EU had to show that it was a community of values and solidarity, which wanted to contribute and repair the damages. He spoke o the very large consensus within the Council for the measures proposed by the Commission, as well as for the creation of a European fund. Commissioner Michel Barnier especially insisted on prevention, which as he acknowledged, would require a lot of political courage for taking care rather than rearranging territory. At a European level, the main financial level would be structural funds, he indicated, pointing out that efforts were not adequate to deal with the risks facing them and that regional policy had to be revised in order to make prevention a priority measure. Speaking about the regions that have been affected he noted that the Commission proposed mobilising all existing instruments and that "all margins for flexibility will be used". All the MEPs wanted to see practical European solidarity. The EPP-DE group of Hans Gert Pöttering (CDU) welcomed the rapid action of the Commission and the Danish Presidency and said that a balance between balance, subsidiarity and solidarity was needed. Mr Pöttering said that emergency aid of one million Euros would be needed but the stability Pact should not be side-stepped. The President of the Socialist Group, Henrique Baron, launched an appeal to the Commission and the Council for them to supersede certain technical considerations in the budgetary area and called for a possible revision of the Stability Pact for the countries affected by the disasters. Finnish Liberal, Kyösti Virrankosi called for the creation of a fund with a flexibility instrument and clear criteria for loans and a more effective struggle to be waged against climate change and the greenhouse effect. This was a position clearly defended by the Green/ALE and GUE/NGL groups, which wanted future funds to be increased from Community funds given to Member States at the end of the budgetary exercise.