Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-23-Speech-3-156"

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"Madam President, I would like to make a few comments on texts that I think are somewhat ambiguous. Firstly although the largest terrorist attacks in the last year have taken place in New York and Bali, it would be interesting to consider what Europe’s response would have been if the original attack that drew our attention to the scale of terrorism, that of 11 September 2001, had taken place in Europe; if the aeroplanes, instead of flying into the twin towers in New York, had flown into the Eiffel Tower, the buildings of the European Parliament or any other major European building. Perhaps such self-examination would have given us a greater insight into the ambiguities and the difficulties we face in dealing with the phenomenon of terrorism, which we have not yet entirely renounced. The second aspect that I should like to mention – in addition to praising the Council’s intention to maintain close cooperation with the United States in this field – is that, in fact, and this is an important point, terrorism has little to do with poverty. Poor people are clearly involved in terrorist actions, but those directing operations are not poor. And if we look at the world as a whole, the poorest people are not involved in the phenomenon of terrorism: Africa would be the main source of terrorist acts if a correlation really existed between terrorism and poverty. But this is not the case! Terrorism is a phenomenon that contains a political rationale requiring the achievement of certain aims and also requires a degree of power. And this does not, of course, come from the poorest, or at least not directly from the poorest. Lastly, I should like to refer to something Commissioner Patten said, quoting Popper. The problem we face today is also one that Popper raised: it is not so much the tension between the need to preserve freedoms and our perception of what the security and defence of free society means, but our inability and unwillingness to believe in the moral superiority of democracy and of freedom. Furthermore, on the basis of this concept, which is fundamental to our civilisation and which is longed for by the peoples of the entire world, in particular the poor, perhaps we should be able and willing to act against terrorism. Unfortunately, some ambiguities in Europe today are preventing us from doing so."@en1

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