Brussels, 07/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - After the wave of incendiary devices and letter bombs sent to the EU institutions and bodies, a meeting is scheduled to be held at the end of this week in Brussels to coordinate security measures between institutions, Javier Solana's spokesperson, Cristina Gallach, has announced.
These threats must be taken seriously and security must be stepped up, but without making the European institutions a "bunker", EPP-ED President Hans-Gert Pöttering told the press on Wednesday. He noted that this is particularly true regarding the safety of their colleagues who open the mail (he commented that it was his trainee, a jurist from Göttingen, who had opened the letter bomb intended for himself this week).
Commission sources point out that protection of President Prodi has now been stepped up. Answering questions put to him in Dublin on Tuesday, Romnao Prodi recalled: "I have had a personal experience" of this kind (the letter bomb was sent to his home in Bologna). He went on to say: "I am calm and I am not frightened but it is not a pleasant experience. I am concerned that the European institutions have been attacked in this hostile way once, twice, three and four times. I hope it will soon come to an end".