European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said ‘’we have the moral and political duty to bring about a situation as soon as possible where not one Jew in Europe feels the urge to leave Europe because he or she sees no future fo them on this continent’, in an address to a memorial ceremony at the EU Jewish building in Brussels for the 17 victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
Four Jews were killed by an Islamist terrorist who took hostages in a kosher supermarket.
Timmermans tried to reassure the Jewish community still shocked by the attack against the Hyper Cacher store which occurred only a few months after another Islamist terrorist killed four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
‘’If there is no future for Jews in Europe, there is no future for Europe,’’ he stressed.
Two other members of the European Commission, French Pierre Moscovici and Corina Cretu, as well as several diplomats attended the ceremony organised by the European Jewish Association (EJA).
‘’Taking away the Jews from Europe is taking away Europe’s soul,’’ he continued. ‘’The answer that we now call European Union and European integration was an answer to that threat. That is why we have the European integration, not for economic reasons but to avoid the mistakes we as Europeans we collectively made in the past.’’
‘’70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, it should be our greatest duty to prevent the ghosts zand the demons of the past to return. Let’s do this for the victims who fell due to hatred in Paris,’’ said Timmermans, a former Foreign Minister of Holland, ending his speech with the Hebrew words ‘’Ani Yehudi’’ (I am a Jew).
Earlier on Wednesday, at its weekly meeting, the 28-member European Commission, the EU’s executive body, discussed fresh counter-terror measures in the wake of the latest attacks and the problem of Europeans jihadists.
Timmermans said the EU was determined to respond in keeping with its core values of tolerance and inclusion, promising a new strategy would be ready by May.
The Commission will do everything to develop a “strategy that offers hope and prospects for everyone in Europe,” he said. ''Whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or atheist, everybody has a place in this society,” he added.