Madam President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the day before yesterday, an aeroplane crashed over New York, and once again, we all held our breath because we were afraid that it was another terrorist attack. Thankfully, it was not an act of terrorism, although it was a truly horrific incident. However, Monday's fears show that terrorism is affecting our lives and that we cannot simply continue with ‘business as usual’. We must therefore make it clear that we regard terrorism as an enormous challenge, an intellectual, political, economic and, indeed, a military challenge. I welcome your comments, Madam President-in-Office of the Council. They tie in precisely with the keywords which I have written in my notes: we must dismantle the terrorist networks. This is the task now being undertaken in Afghanistan. We have all seen the pictures, which show the joy on people's faces in Kabul but also the dead bodies, obviously the victims of massacres. We therefore appeal to the Northern Alliance, which was led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, a responsible leader whom we welcomed here in April, to conduct itself in Afghanistan and in Kabul in a way which demonstrates that it is a good representative, also for human dignity and a better future for this suffering country. What we now need, and I agree with the President-in-Office of the Council on this point, is action from the United Nations. I welcome the fact that our American friends are involving the United Nations in this way. However, what we also need, and the European Union must play a key role here, is an alliance, a coalition for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. We must not repeat the mistake of the 1980s and 1990s, when we left Afghanistan to fend for itself. We must give Afghanistan our help. The European Union's role throughout this conflict, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, has been rather pathetic. Of course, the military issues are primarily national issues. We are not yet at the point where we, Europeans, can genuinely take on a joint role. However, I am extremely embarrassed by the conduct of some of the European Union countries over recent weeks. First of all, there was a tripartite meeting during the informal summit in Ghent, and then there was the meeting in London. I must say that I found this embarrassing. We do not have any self-appointed chiefs within the European Union; we have a European Union with a Council Presidency and a Commission. In London, the representatives, even the President-in-Office of the Council, invited themselves, and I found that especially embarrassing. Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the Belgian Presidency attended the meeting in London; Greece, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark did not. I would have expected the Belgian Presidency, which I hold in high esteem, especially the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, to protest about this meeting, as it should have been the presidency's task to invite Member States to a meeting of this kind instead of having to request an invitation to go to London. I hope that different procedures will be adopted in future and that this kind of division within the European Union will not happen again. Of course, we have to learn from our mistakes. I hope that we will learn from these mistakes as well. From our group's point of view, it is essential that we act jointly, not only at the level of intergovernmental cooperation. We want joint action from Europe, and we expect resolute and courageous action from the Council Presidency in this context too. We will support the Council Presidency if it responds in this way, and we will also support the Commission. Mr Busquin, I call upon the Commission, its President and all its members: please make Europe's voice heard! The Commission must get involved; it must state its opinion, and it must not simply accept what we have witnessed in recent weeks and months. We have a chance if we take this resolute stance, and I can say on behalf of our group that we will be resolute in our support for the Council Presidency and the Commission if the shared interests of the European Union are stated clearly. We call on you to take this action. If you do so, you can be sure of our support. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE