"Terror has struck in Europe. It is, sadly, not the first time," Tusk said in Riga, the capital of Latvia which assumed EU's rotating presidency on January 1.
The EU can respond to the "barbaric attacks in Paris" by "strengthening our security."
"Next week in Strasbourg I will appeal to the European Parliament to speed up work on the EU Passenger Name Record system, which can help in detecting the travel of dangerous people. This can be our common initiative," he said.
Tusk spoke as elite French forces hunted two brothers suspected of massacring 12 people in an Islamist attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday, an attack that shocked the country and sparked rallies of support across the world.