Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-19-Speech-3-026"
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"en.20010919.6.3-026"2
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"Madam President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, we must put aside the understandable emotions of the last ten days and the messages of solidarity and compassion and contemplate the future calmly. The criminal attacks carried out in the United States on 11 September, which cost thousands of lives, force us to seriously consider the course of action we need to take in order to prevent this ever happening again, to break up criminal and terrorist networks and to avoid violence spiralling out of control. This violence is also a fact of life for very many people in this world – I am thinking of the people of Afghanistan in particular, who, as you mentioned earlier, are being subjected to a war that has raged for decades, as well as the intolerable Taliban political regime.
On behalf of my group, I welcome the attitude of the High Representative of the Common, Foreign and Security Policy, Mr Solana, particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the positions adopted several weeks ago by the Council and the Presidency, represented by Mr Michel. The actions of Mr Michel are of great benefit to the European Union and to the whole world.
In order to have effective political action, we need a firm and determined approach. This does not mean, however, responding to the acts of barbarism, such as those perpetrated on 11 September, with military action that would cause civilian casualties and cost innocent lives.
I believe that our representatives are convinced of this, and I believe that the comments made by the chairs of the political groups and other Members were also along these lines. I would hope, however, that the European Union, represented by the President of the Council, also convinces the American authorities, President Bush and his aides of this, as they have been speaking about revenge for several days, which causes concern for me personally, as well as for the people of Europe.
The current situation certainly calls for an international and multilateral response. We need global instruments to manage global problems. International terrorism is a global phenomenon. First of all, we must of course take a European and Community approach, but we work at an international level, and we must therefore take appropriate action, in other words, on both levels. I therefore believe that the European Union must demand that the perpetrators and sponsors of criminal actions such as those of 11 September are brought before the International Criminal Tribunal, which would of course be the most appropriate body to judge such acts, which are, as we have already said, crimes against humanity.
A multilateral approach is required – all the more so because there is a strong risk of seeing a coalition forming in Muslim countries against the West, at the instigation of the most fanatical regimes in power – in Afghanistan particularly – which could persuade other countries that we are hostile towards them. I therefore believe that it is in our interest to establish as close a dialogue as possible with Arab countries and with Muslim countries in general. In my view, the proposal that I made yesterday to the Conference of Presidents is positive, and this was reiterated by all the chairs of the political groups. In addition, you have announced an initiative by some authorities to implement the proposal, namely to organise an international Euro-Arab or even better, a Euro-Muslim forum, so that discussions can be held on international problems, which will, without doubt, be constructive in terms of the future of our relations and the future of the world.
Lastly, Madam President, I would like to thank Commissioner Vitorino for the Commission proposals on the fight against terrorism, but I believe that we must also deal with the root causes of the problem. I would like to mention, in the thirty seconds that remain, a key problem. Funding of terrorist networks lies at the root of this evil and unfortunately we have tools which are in place and which enable funding of these networks, in other words, bank secrecy and tax havens. I believe that the European Union must take steps in order to eliminate these two elements and therefore destroy the root cause of this evil."@en1
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