Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-07-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20050907.2.3-048"2
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"Mr President, I welcome the statements from the President-in-Office of the Council and from the Commissioner. However, I want to address my words to the Members of this House.
After 11 September, the bombings in Madrid, London and Turkey are a wake-up call. We have heard the Council and the Commission being urged to act. Of course they have to act, but so does the European Parliament. Terrorists and organised criminals use modern technology while we, in this House, argue and debate whether our police and intelligence services should have access to the same tools and the same technology. We argue in defence of the right of privacy whilst our citizens' lives are being physically damaged, undermined and sometimes terminated. Ordinary men and women look to us to make their lives and their communities safer. Yes, we must achieve a balance on privacy, on the retention of data and the use of data, but not to the point where we hand the terrorists and criminals an advantage that undermines our own way of life and gives them the opportunity to commit further atrocities.
In this House we must end the interinstitutional argument and act collectively with the Commission and the Council to achieve agreement, with checks and balances on data retention, the use of biometrics, passenger name records, Schengen Information System II, VIS, police and intelligence cooperation.
Balance is essential. But remember this: terrorists have no respect for democracy and even less respect for human rights, except their own. Political extremists will exploit the vacuum we create by our inaction and our prolonged deliberations, undertaken comfortably within our secure environments.
Our citizens fear that we have lost touch with reality and do not understand their fears, their needs, their lives. Extremists will and do use the explosive cocktail of terrorism, immigration and asylum and the fear of the stranger to pursue their own agenda, which will diminish the rights of the vulnerable. We must be practical and sensible in our approach, but we must act.
Freedom of movement across the European Union is seen as the biggest single benefit of being a member of the EU. That new right has been acquired because we have ceded another right. We have consented to the fact that information can be collected, retained and used on us. Had we not ceded that right of privacy, we would not have freedom of movement across the European Union."@en1
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