EU Stands Firmly by US After Terror Raids, Says European Commission ChiefPresident of the European Commission Romano Prodi said Wednesday that the 15-nation European Union (EU) stood firmly by the United States following the worst attacks on US targets since Pearl Harbor.After a meeting of the EU executive body over the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, Prodi said he had ordered a tightening of security precautions at the commission's overseas missions. "In the darkest days of European history, America stood close by us and today we stand close by America," Prodi told a news briefing after observing a minute of silence in respect for the estimated thousands of people who died in the attacks. "This criminal act was intended as an assault on all our shared values and on freedom itself," said the EU executive president. " It is a true watershed and nothing will ever be the same." "EU institutions and governments will work in close collaboration with our American friends ... We will not allow terrorism to win the day and to divide the world, which is its intention," Prodi said. |
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