EU React to bin Laden's death

BRUSSELS, May 2, 2011 - The European Union on Monday said Osama bin Laden's death was a "major achievement" in the fight to eliminate terrorism that made the world "a safer place".

In a joint statement, EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Bin Laden's killing was "a major achievement in our efforts to rid the world of terrorism.

Cameron was the first among EU leaders to react to the announcement made on Sunday night (1 May) by US President Barack Obama that he had ordered the "operation" which killed the top terrorist. A spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel later said the German leader had communicated her "relief" at the news to the US president.

European Union continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States, our international partners and our friends in the Muslim world in combating the scourge of global extremism and in building a world of peace, security and prosperity for all.

Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt tweeted: "A world without Osama Bin Laden is a better world. His hatred was a threat to us all

At the European Parliament, its president Jerzy Buzek welcomed the news.

"Bin Laden`s activities brought suffering and death to innocent people and families in the entire world," he said in a statement.

"People of different faith, language or race who believe in peaceful co-existence can feel more secure.

Hungary, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency, earlier cautioned that the fight against terrorism was far from over.

While Bin Laden's death was a "significant" step, "this does not mean the end of the fight against terrorism," Hungary's Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said.

But not all members of the EU parliament met the news with similar enthusiasm.

Finnish Green MEP Heidi Hautala, chairwoman of the human rights committee in the EU legislature, told this website that it would have been "much better if he was brought to justice alive."

"I am sure the discussion will continue, including in the European Parliament, as to why it was needed for him to be killed. The aim should have been not to wage a war against al Qaeda and countries suspected of giving them protection, but to make terrorism an issue of international criminal justice.

But the head of the parliament's human rights commission, Finnish ecologist Heidi Hautala, said it would have been "much better if he had been brought, alive, to face justice.