Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-034"
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"en.20000217.3.4-034"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it may not have been given all that much attention in this House this morning but Mr Di Pietro’s report is one of the most important reports that the Committee on Fundamental Freedoms and Internal Affairs has ever had to debate in the course of the last few years.
This is evidence of the fact that, logically, the Charter for Fundamental Rights that we are currently discussing – now being precisely the right time – should be integrated into the EU Treaty so that the European authorities are compelled to uphold fundamental rights. We also noted with great interest that the rapporteur is a well-known representative of the Italian judiciary and that the vast majority of the proposed amendments to his report were tabled by a Member who is currently being prosecuted by the Italian judiciary. It is a curious thing when Italy’s criminal prosecution authorities, which are affected by what goes on in this Parliament, see amendments tabled by people who are being prosecuted in Italy itself – rightly, as I see it. No doubt, Mr Dell’Utri’s name is still on the list of speakers.
It is one of the most important reports because it is concerned with an extremely sensitive aspect of Europe’s political future. As economic integration within Europe is proceeding at an ever-faster pace we are creating a large area of free and unrestricted economic activity. But wherever such a large area of free, unimpeded economic activity comes into being, by the same token there is a great deal of scope for free, unimpeded and illegal economic activity.
We are therefore facing a situation where we have an economic area which offers perfect opportunities for unlimited criminal activity; however combating such activities, both in terms of police and judicial cooperation – unlike legislation on business and commerce, which has become Community law – is still largely the preserve of inter-state relations.
The Di Pietro report puts its finger on the problem, i.e. that the measures necessary to combat crime have to be organised down to the last detail at inter-state agreement level. And if you ever have occasion to talk to practising judges or public prosecutors about how long it takes these days for requests for mutual assistance in criminal matters to be resolved in manifestly obvious, open and shut, serious criminal cases of a cross-border nature, then you will reach the conclusion that even after the agreement we are now discussing and which Mr Di Pietro has drafted a report on, has come into force, we can assume that although there may be certain technical and organisational improvements, in fact we have only just started out on the road to faster, more efficient and unimpeded cooperation between judges in the European Union
There is still a long way to go before we have what we urgently need (and this is also the view held by my group), that is a European Public Prosecutor who will cooperate with a European police force in clearly defined areas of competence and who will succeed, by means of this cooperation, not just in having offenders arrested in the Union following police measures, but also in making the results of police investigative work usable by the courts. And this usability by the courts must not founder on nation state sovereignty reservations, for that is the crux of the matter.
We have followed this report most attentively and we have supported most of Mr Di Pietro’s points. I would like to draw your attention to two particularly interesting issues that arose during debate. The first is that it became apparent from the telephone bugging example and the debate surrounding this complex of issues, that possibilities for intervention in fundamental civil liberties, which are emerging in the European Union – for example, when we talk in terms of one country undertaking telephone bugging in another country – and the associated issue of the guarantees of fundamental rights that those who are affected need, are not sufficiently regulated within the European Union."@en1
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