Brussels, 12/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - As we have already indicated, MEPs reiterated their solidarity with the USA a year after the attacks on 11 September but some of them distanced themselves form the positions of the Bush Administration (see EUROPE yesterday p 7).
Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the EPP-DE, gave his support to the anti-terrorist struggle and in a retort to the criticism of the USA, declared, "Can you imagine what the world would look like if the terrorists had succeeded in their goal of debilitating the US?" Mr Pöttering explained that even as Europeans, they ought to be able to respond, which meant overcoming their differences of opinion, while at the same time avoiding any blanket association of terrorism with the Arab world or Islam. The EU should also strengthen its relations with the Arab world, he added. The President of the Socialist group, Enriqué Baron, like almost all the other contributions, insisted on the need to remember and also called for a stop to the banalisation of violence, which was "dehumanising". The multilateralism is the condition for defeating terrorism, he emphasised and in quoting Javier Solana, he brought up certain common EU characteristics regarding economic and social facts and conflict prevention. The President of the Liberal group, Graham Watson, sought, "a deep political dialogue with our American friends on the underlying common values of our common war on terrorism". The Scottish Liberal explained that it was possible to fight terrorism, while respecting values and human rights (Mr Watson is a former Chairman of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights and was responsible for writing reports on respecting the State of Law in this context: Editor's note). The tone changed a bit with Monica Frassoni, Co-President of the Greens/EFA group, who while stressing the initial horror of the "tragedy" of 11 September, pleaded for other "tragedies and injustices" that push millions of people daily to "despair" to be avoided. She emphasised her group's solidarity with the Americans, who after 11 September, spoke "against wars of religion…special laws" or attempts to reduce the International Criminal Court to a farce and who know that even the USA cannot govern the world alone. The President of the Left Unity/NGL group, Francis Wurtz, shared a similar view and while referring to the "rape" of 11 September, which had not been airbrushed from memory but a year after, "we were hoping to have drawn up a different balance sheet for this period". He regretted that, "this historic occasion had been spoiled" by the tendency of the US government, "powerful but isolated" to belittle the gravity of going to war, in the event of a preventive war that went beyond the essential struggle against terrorism. Jens-Peter Bonde, President of the European of Democracies and Differences thought that anti-terrorist coalition remained fragile and was in danger of collapsing if it wasn't accompanied by "an even larger coalition against poverty". The Danish MEP insisted on the Middle East problem to be resolved and the respect for the State of law, "Let's honour the dead but let's do more for the living". Speaking on behalf of the Union for a Europe of Nations, Gerard Collins from Ireland called for a continued collective effort against terrorism, while respecting the law and human rights. French sovereignist Domininique Souchet (unregistered) also spoke of this need for respect, "We can be severe about the USA's lack of lucidity in the face of the scale of the Islamisist threat; but only yesterday…terrorists easily found asylum in our European capitals and were trained, welcomed and qualified here."