Harlem Désir, French European Affairs Minister said:
‘I am comforted by the solidarity and condolences of my colleagues here today. We are united in our horror at the attacks on Paris on Friday. With so many lives lost as they ate in a restaurant, or watched a concert, this is a true tragedy on an unprecedented scale.’
‘Our Socialist and Democrat parties stand united against terrorism. Our answer to this is closer cooperation. We need coordinated action, more cooperation and joint action on foreign policy, intelligence sharing and security measures. The EU must guarantee safety for all citizens and therefore strengthen cooperation between Member States.’
We have to urgently implement the roadmap to fight against terrorism adopted by all EU Member States in the European Council of 12 February. With a solid Passenger Name Record policy, systematic and coordinated controls on Europe’s external borders, stronger firearm control laws, effective fight against the financing of terrorism, and the exchange of information on criminal records.
‘We reject any attempts to fuse the separate issues of migration and terrorism. Refugees fleeing to Europe do so to escape the very same extremists that attacked Europe last weekend.’
Participants’ list
Harlem Désir – Minister of State for European Affairs, France
Michael Roth – Minister of State for Europe, Germany
Sandro Gozi – Deputy Secretary for European Affairs, Italy
Louis Grech – Deputy Prime Minister, Malta
Bert Koenders – Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
Hans Dahlgrens – State Secretary for International and EU affairs, Sweden
Ivan Korčok – State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovak Republic
Corina Crețu – European Commissioner on Regional Policy
Enrique Guerrero – Vice President of the S&D Group in the European Parliament
Yonnec Polet – Deputy Secretary General, PES
