EU foreign ministers call for unity in terror fight
Foreign Affairs Council meeting - Photo EU Council
(BRUSSELS) - European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday called for unity in the fight against terror following the attacks in Paris.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday's attacks in Paris, which left 129 people dead and were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, were "not an attack on one single country" but "an attack on Europe... an attack on civilisation".
She urged EU members to "unite forces, share information, share a political agenda, put together all of our diplomatic, economic -- sometimes also military efforts" to face the IS threat.
French European affairs minister Harlem Desir said that while France had been targeted, "the whole of Europe has been affected".
"We were attacked together, we will respond together and together we will defeat terrorism and the terrorist army of Daesh," he said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
Didier Reynders, foreign minister of Belgium -- where several of the Paris suspects hailed from -- agreed there was a need for greater intelligence-sharing.
Jean Asselborn, foreign minister of Luxembourg, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, warned against confusing the issues of terrorism and migration, as the continent struggles to cope with its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
EU interior ministers will hold crisis talks in Brussels on Friday to tackle security issues raised by the Paris attacks.
The meeting will discuss plans for a Passenger Name Record (PNR) system which involves collecting EU passenger data, a measure sought by the United States after years of controversy over how to protect personal information while fighting terrorism and serious crime.