Mail room security stepped up in European Parliament

Jan 15, 2004 12:00 PM

European Union institutions have stepped up mail room security, as five more suspicious letters were intercepted at the European Parliament a day after two booby-trapped letters sent to Parliament members exploded.

European Commission president Romano Prodi, himself the target of a parcel bomb sent to his Bologna home on Dec. 27, expressed serious concern.

"We work openly, without this sense of necessity of daily defense, and this makes our work really more difficult," he said. Prodi's security has been reinforced and all 19 of his colleagues on the European Commission have been invited to take correspondence sent to their home addresses to commission security staff for checking, officials said.

None of the five letters, which were found on various floors of the European Parliament, had been opened, the Belgian interior ministry said.

Security personnel acted after a letter sent to German Hans-Gert Poettering burst into flames last week. Hours later, a letter bomb exploded at the offices of Gary Titley, head of the British Labour group in the EU legislature, in the English city of Manchester.

No one was injured in the two incidents or in attacks over the Christmas break which targeted Prodi, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet and the heads of EU agencies Europol and Eurojust in The Hague.

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