Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-024"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20011212.2.3-024"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I wish to talk specifically about the Council statement which we are expecting on cooperation between the EU and the USA and cooperation in combating terrorism. The events of 11 September were an excruciating flash of light and we had to react immediately. However, we must not be blinded into forgetting that terrorism has been a problem on our continent for many years. After 11 September, I remember Hans Gert Poettering saying here in a memorable debate 'we are all Americans', but we have learned since then that we must first be Europeans. I welcome the Justice and Home Affairs Council's agreement at the weekend on a framework decision on combating terrorism. I welcome the Council's recognition of a European Union legal base for the freezing of assets of groups linked to terrorism and, in particular, yesterday's agreement between Council President Guy Verhofstadt and Prime Minister Berlusconi on a European arrest warrant.
Europe has put its house in order. Europe has shown its capacity to act. In tackling terrorism there is a fine balance to be struck between the security needs of our citizens and the rights and freedoms which make democracy what it is. The European Union has shown that it can be tough on terrorism and still be true to its treaties and to the values which underpin them. It has recognised that networks of terrorism stretch beyond its borders and that we need cooperation between democracies, particularly across the Atlantic.
The next step must be an agreement on better cooperation with the United States. Articles 24 and 28 of the TEU allow us to build a cooperation agreement on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters with our friends in North America. We note that there is a famous exchange of letters between Mr Bush and Mr Verhofstadt – some 40 US proposals on what we could be doing to improve our capacity to fight against terrorism. Most of these can be and I believe are being complied with. Some of them cause a few doubts since the US appears to be asking for things which it does not require in its own laws, such as retention of traffic data. Yet others highlight a difference of legal culture between our democracies.
On a visit to Washington DC last week, in talks with senators, congressmen and members of the Administration, I was concerned to learn that the US Patriot Act, adopted by the United States to fight terrorism, appears to discriminate against non-US citizens. We will need to explore with our American friends quite how it affects those from the European Union. I was struck too at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of Attorney General John Ashcroft by the way in which the proposal for military tribunals – the executive order from the President – would provide for hearings in secret, for a prosecution being able to withhold evidence from the defence, for defendants not necessarily having the right to an independent lawyer or to a private conversation with their lawyer, and by how a sentence – including a death sentence – can be passed by a majority of two-thirds of the jurors. Even if we were able to get an agreement on an extradition package in which the US would not apply the death penalty, the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which all of our Member States are signatories and on which the Union is founded, would prevent extradition of suspects to appear before such military tribunals.
Here, in Europe, we have developed a rights-based approach to international law. We would like a permanent international criminal court to try those guilty of crimes against humanity and we have called on the Americans to join us in that. We recognise that democracies need to work together in the fight against terrorism and other forms of serious cross-border crime. My fear is that, if the US goes down the path of military tribunals, we are on divergent paths. We must make that clear to Mr Ashcroft on his visit to Europe later this week."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples