At the same time as citizens all over Europe stopped what they were doing to pay respect for those who died from the Indian Ocean disaster, European Parliament President Josep Borrell in Brussels led the three minutes of silence at Rond Point Schuman.A senior statesman had noted it was the first time that the 25 countries of the European Union had come together for a day of mourning.

Borrell said:“I hope that what has happened helps us to realise what a chasm of difference there is between out well-being and those countries’. And I hope the commitment to give doesn’t disappear as soon as the television cameras leave. Because there is a long job ahead, not only to bury the dead but also to ensure that the survivors’ have a better life. More than 9,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, are dead, missing or unaccounted for after the disaster in northwestern Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Across Europe, public buildings flew flags at half mast.

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