Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-31-Speech-3-208"
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"en.20040331.6.3-208"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as this debate and this report both clearly demonstrate, fundamental rights unfortunately continue to be violated in the EU. I feel, however, that for Members of this House, who are soon to go before the electorate in elections that are especially important for the EU’s future, it is worth recalling that the extraordinary
gains of the past five years in the area of human rights are something to be proud of and may, indeed, encourage the citizens to take part in the electoral process, given the prospects for establishing a European policy on fundamental rights.
The Convention that approved the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Parliament’s annual role in identifying problems in fundamental rights – sometimes a highly ideological debate, but certainly always a topical one – the amendment of Article 7 of the Treaty of Nice, the fact that a Fundamental Rights Agency has been established and, as the President-in-Office of the Council Mr Roche has just said, the prospect of giving the Charter of Fundamental Rights a central role in the draft Constitutional Treaty, constitute, in my view, a range of aspects that will show the citizens that this body, which they elect directly, has always placed the issue of fundamental rights at the forefront of political debate and activity.
My second observation concerns the references made to asylum policy. We cannot hide the fact that Member States have differences that are sometimes difficult to surmount, and that sometimes the price we have to pay to get over these differences is an agreement based on the lowest common denominator. We have always viewed such agreements as one part of a gradual definition of asylum policy and migration. We cannot close our eyes to this, but let us not be defeatist. Today, I must confess – and it pains me to say this – the day after the Council of Ministers finally adopted a directive defining the concept of refugee, aligning systems of subsidiary protection and recognising that non-State agents can be agents of persecution, in which case refugee status can also be granted; we welcome this directive, which contains excellent proposals in the area of international protection and is a major step forward in defining a European concept of asylum. Let us, today at least, not be defeatist and let us recognise the positive elements of the steps that have been taken.
My third comment concerns the protection of privacy and fundamental rights in the war on terror. We are not in the process of creating an Orwellian world. It cannot be denied that we face a threat and in order to protect our open way of life we must prevent terrorism and protect our citizens. To this end, we must make use of the technology that proves to be the most appropriate.
We must not tilt at windmills, nor must we fight technology merely for the sake of it. What we must do is ensure that this technology is used in accordance with the law and the required safeguards as regards privacy and guarantees of fundamental rights. This is the challenge facing us, and Parliament must, accordingly, be involved in defining the legal rules governing the introduction of biometric data on passports and visas, and of data cross-checking in the area of security.
Lastly, the key frame of reference of the policy of protecting fundamental rights in the EU is the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but is not solely confined to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We do not wish to be cut off from the general development of the protection of fundamental rights across Europe as a whole, notably in the scope of the Council. There is, therefore, no conflict between conferring constitutional status on the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and at the same time advocating that the EU should join the European Convention on Human Rights. The future European Constitution points in this direction."@en1
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