Debate during the plenary session of January in Strasbourg on&nbsp;Gun attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Statements by representatives of the political groups,&nbsp;Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR),&nbsp;Pervenche BER&Egrave;S (S&amp;D, FR),&nbsp;Helga STEVENS (ECR, BE),Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE),&nbsp;Patrick LE HYARIC (GUE/NGL, FR),&nbsp;Mich&egrave;le RIVASI (Greens/EFA, FR),&nbsp;Nigel FARAGE (EFDD, UK) and&nbsp;Marine LE PEN (NI, FR).

Brussels

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

debate

plenary session

STEVENS, Helga (ECR, BE)

fight against terrorism (T)

FARAGE, Nigel (NI, UK)

BERÈS, Pervenche (S&D, FR)

EU - France (T)

LE HYARIC, Patrick (GUE/NGL, FR)

freedom of press and media (T)

LE PEN, Marine (ENF, FR)

LAMASSOURE, Alain (EPP, FR)

RIVASI, Michèle (Greens/EFA, FR)

Gun attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris: extracts from the statements by political group leaders

SOUNDBITE (French), Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR), "Throughout Europe millions of people have generated a people's tsunami; that's why from today, the 11 of January will be the date of the birth of the 'Europe of the peoples'. Peoples united in diversity, united in adversity, united in our values and against hatred; we are not talking about books, treaties or indeed speeches, we are talking about reaching out the streets and our hearts".

SOUNDBITE (French), Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR), "The real targets are our values: universal values that Europe proclaimed first among the countries of the world and which are underpinned the European project: freedom of expression, the freedom to belief, tolerance, the right to difference and the dignity of the human person; and of course the supreme value of peace, the peace as a purpose, as a means to resolve all disputes while respecting all differences. That's the miracle that made Europe succeed and this miracle is under threat".

SOUNDBITE (French), Pervenche BER&#200;S (S&amp;D, FR), "Yes, we are all Charlie, this is a French Charlie, satirical and free, these people fell with others under a hail of bullets that they had never wish to see, but it is in all our 'raison d'&ecirc;tre' to reject fear and barbarity; victims of terrorism that believed on democracy, and we must now support democracy and be proud of it; we should give an extraordinary 'Sakharov Prize' to Charlie Hebdo".

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Helga STEVENS (ECR, BE), "We share France's grief and we express our deepest and sincere condolences but words do not diminish suffering; what we can do today, when our values are under threat is to remain strong. Europe will remain strong and united and determined".

SOUNDBITE (French), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), "We have to recognise that there's been a failure from our side. These terrorist were our children, they were born in our soil, raised in our soil and they died in our soil. Social and sectorial exclusion which affects a part of our youth is facilitating the jihad indoctrination, and this is everywhere and rises a questioning on our role and our responsibilities as Europeans. For far too long Europe has been thinking that we can turn away from the problems of the rest of the world; going to Iraq and the indifference towards Syria are the causes of this terrorism, and they have a huge impact in our day to day life. Together we have to make sure that we are able to act".

SOUNDBITE (French), Patrick LE HYARIC (GUE/NGL, FR), "We must avoid any political exploitation of this and we need to go beyond and look for the ways to eradicate terrorism. A 'war' mind-set will not eradicate it. Look at what happened in 15 years of war against terror. We need a plan for co-development, of dialogue with the peoples of the Middle-East".

SOUNDBITE (French), Mich&#232;le RIVASI (Greens/EFA, FR), "We don't accept this to be called a war of civilisations, we shall not allow to see thing being conflated and create division as some nationalist are trying to make across Europe; there is also another risk of seeing our public freedoms drowning under a new security arsenal on the pretexts that we must fight terrorism".

SOUNDBITE (English), Nigel FARAGE (EFDD, UK), "We need now to have an honest admission that actually our political decisions have led too much of what has happened. Just think about foreign policy: from Afghanistan to Iraq, through Libya and even the attempts to want to arm the rebels in Syria. All of these was done we were told to make our streets safer, and in fact what we've done is to stir up very deep resentments within much of the Muslim community and it has had the very opposite effect".

SOUNDBITE (French), Marine LE PEN (NI, FR), "I think that our first duty with the victims is to put a name to those who killed them; terrorism didn't kill them; terrorism is a means, it is Islamic fundamentalism who killed this people. This deadly ideology which has caused so much pain the last days here, and which is causing thousands of victims across the world at the moment we speak".