World Jewish News

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov: ''We must send a strong message to the rest of the world that Europe will not be soft on terrorism."

Europe should take measures to prevent Burgas-like terrror attacks on its soil, says Bulgarian FM

"Europe should take into very careful consideration what happened in Burgas and come up with with a series of measures that protect us from similar attacks in the future," said Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov, in reference to the terrorist attack against a bus in July 2012 that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver in Burgas.
Last month, Bulgaria informed its EU partners that its investigation showed that Hezbollah was behind the bombing but the EU has so far resisted adding the Lebanese Shiite group to its list of terror organizations as demanded by Israel, the US, Canada and Holland.
Such a decision to blacklist Hezbollah needs unanimity of the 27 EU member states.
"We must prevent those who use Europe as a staging or a funding ground to support their operations to do that," Mladenov said in an interview with Jewish News One (JN1) in Brussels where he attended Wednesday a ceremony marking 70 years since the Bulgarian Jewish community was saved from deportation during the Holocaust.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who is on a state visit to the EU, was guest of honor at the ceremony in the European Parliament, along with his Bulgarian counterpart Rosen Plevneliev.
"I think it’s very important for us across the European Union to show the strength and the solidarity that we must have each others in times like this and come up with a very strong set of measures," Mladenov said.
According to the Bulgarian minister, discussion has started within the EU Council on which measures should be taken. "Our security services are coordinating very closely to come up with a plan of effective measures," he said.
"This will also send a strong message to the rest of the world that Europe will not be soft on terrorism," he added.
During his EU talks, President Peres is expected to reiterate his call for blacklisting Hezbollah after Bulgaria blamed the group for the Burgas bombing.
“The President will tell the EU leaders that every country needs to treat Hezbollah as a terror organisation,” his spokesperson told EJP earlier this week.
Peres is expected to meet with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy later on Wednesday and the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday.
Next Tuesday he will address the plenary session of European Parliament in Strasbourg.

by: Yossi Lempkowicz

EJP