On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, President Van Rompuy and President José Manuel Barroso made a joint statement in which they stressed that promoting the rule of law, human rights and democratic governance, open intercultural dialogue and providing economic and educational opportunities is the best guarantee to enhance the security. The European Parliament's President, Jerzy Buzek also underlined that Europe and the United States, together with their international partners, will always stand united in the fight against terrorism of all kinds.

A decade has passed since the heinous attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington DC when more than 3,000 persons lost their lives. On the remembrance of this tenth anniversary, the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the European Commission's President José Manuel Barroso made a joint statement in which they reminded that the consensus achieved in the UN General Assembly behind the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy shows that the world is united on this without distinction of religion or any other factor. According to them, Europe continues to make progress in enhancing law enforcement cooperation, protecting transport systems and critical infrastructure, and in providing support to citizens.

On the statement, both presidents stressed how important is to continue to counter radicalization and the recruitment of new terrorists. The European Commission recently launched the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) in order to support Member States' efforts to prevent violent radicalisation and the recruitment of individuals to terrorist activities. In addition, the presidents remained that the best guarantee to enhance the security of citizens is promoting the rule of law, human rights and democratic governance, open intercultural dialogue and providing economic and educational opportunities.

Jerzy Buzek, the European Parliament's president, highlighted that to him, the EU's biggest challenge in the fight against terrorism in the next decade will be state and institution building. Terrorism proliferates in failed states, it in turns affects the neighbouring countries and can destabilise entire regions. This currently happens in Somalia, in the Sahel region and in Yemen. The situation in Pakistan is also of grave concern. In Pakistan alone between 2003 and 2011 some 37.000 people have been killed in terrorist acts. According to Mr Buzek, this reminds that those who commit terrorists act do not discriminate. Terrorist attacks kill people all of religions and of none.