EU: While there was no excuse for terrorism, the world had to grasp its underlying causes and find solutions to conflicts in places like Chechnya and the Middle East, the new President of the European Parliament, Mr Josep Borrell, said yesterday.
The Parliament held a minute's silence at midday in honour of the children killed in Beslan.
"We cannot claim to abolish all the causes simply by using indiscriminate force, which means we are avenging ourselves on other children, and creating an unbearable upward spiral of violence. We cannot win the battle against terrorism if we see it as a conventional war," said Mr Borrell, a Catalan Socialist MEP, who succeeded Mr Pat Cox last July.
Outlining priorities for his 2½- year term of office, Mr Borrell said the Parliament would engage in the debate on ratification of the constitutional treaty where appropriate. It would be the most important debate on Europe since the founding of the Union.
On Turkey's aspiration to join the EU, he said there was a lot at stake, and the Union would have to show there would no "clash of civilisations" based on religion. "The parliament is not a formal partner in the decision. However, it would be a mistake not to express an opinion on the issue."
As to the internal workings of the Parliament, Mr Borrell pointed out to those MEPs who had chosen to speak in a non-official language that it would take a unanimous decision of the council to change the working language regime of the EU.
The Munster MEP, Mr Brian Crowley (Fianna Fáil), speaking for the UEN (Union for Europe of the Nations) cross-party group, called on the president to allow opening statements in Parliament to be made in languages other than the official ones, if a translation was provided in advance.
Addressing the Parliament on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Mr Eoin Ryan (FF) said the Sudanese government had "failed to carry out its serious international obligations" as outlined by the UN Security Council. It was "an intolerable situation" that many camps were still apparently under the control of the Janjaweed militia.
"Aid agencies must be given free and unencumbered access to these camps. This is not the case at the moment and many aid agencies are working in very difficult situations," Mr Ryan said.