Chirac, Kohl want urgent E.E.C. meeting

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 8

Chirac, Kohl want urgent E.E.C. meeting

NZPA-Reuter Paris France and West Germany, both hit by guerrilla bombs on Monday, will seek an urgent meeting of the European Economic Community to step up the fight against terrorism. The Prime Minister, Mr Jacques Chirac, said after talks with the West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, in Paris that the two Governments

would ask Britain, which holds the Community’s presidency, to convene an immediate meeting of Interior Ministers. The 12-nation Community’s Interior Ministers have up to now met once or twice a year for confidential talks on international police and security co-operation. Mr Chirac said he was seeking the closest possible co-operation in “in-

formation, prevention, and action.” France faces a bombing campaign in Paris by a Middle East group seeking the release of one of its leaders from a French jail. A woman was killed and 16 people injured by a bomb placed in a post office on Monday inside the Paris City Hall, where Mr Chirac lives and has his Mayor’s office.

French politicians of Left and Right have rallied round the Government but have said that anti-terror measures must stay within the law. Dr Kohl said the challenge from terrorists seeking to destabilise society had “reached a new dimension.” He said French and West German officials would co-operate more closely than in the past.

On Monday, the headquarters of West German counter-intelligence was damaged and a passer-by slightly injured when a car bomb planted by Leftwing guerrillas exploded in Cologne. Officials said the two Governments were likely to urge their European partners to impose tighter controls between the Community and the rest of the world.