Being someone who lived and worked in New York City during September 11, 2001, thereafter I took quite seriously any bags without owners I happened to see. The European Parliament's security being notoriously lax (why should assistants or MEPs have to put their bags through the metal detector!? - what an outrage!), when I saw a large unattended bag inside the building I paused. I went up to my office to talk to my colleagues; should I notify guards, I asked them? They scoffed at my concern -- how could they be the targets of terrorism? Didn't everyone know that it was someone else who would be at risk? Suffice it to say, I returned downstairs, found a guard and showed him the bag. His response was to look at me with bewilderment. Why was I telling him about this bag?, he wondered. Finally it dawned on him that this bag was a security risk. "Yes, that is a problem, isn't it," he chuckled to me and hopefully went to go and get reinforcements. I didn't stick around to find out.

This report describes the new efforts at securing the European Parliament buildings, complete with revealing pictures of MEPS.