Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-14-Speech-3-070"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070214.2.3-070"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I too am grateful to all the speakers as well as those who have acknowledged the contribution that the Commission and I myself have made to the work of this Parliament’s committee of enquiry.
I believe that the principle on which we can all agree is that security and fundamental freedoms cannot be pitted against one another. There is no contradiction between citizens’ right to security and proper, scrupulous respect for people’s fundamental rights. In connection with the fight against terrorism, we are also aware that, if even a single violation is found to have been committed during the investigations, the courts are then bound to punish those responsible for this violation and to reject that evidence, and that then allows the terrorists to strengthen their propaganda against us. That is a triple setback in the fight against terrorism.
That is why the rules must be obeyed during the investigations, not least for a reason that is intrinsic to our strategy in the fight against terrorism: if the rules are in fact broken, the law also ends up being broken, which is bad enough in itself, and above all we do not actually get to convict the terrorists. I have to say that there have been too few actual convictions of terrorists for extremely serious crimes throughout the world, compared with the number that have been investigated.
I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that the added value of this parliamentary investigation will be clear even to those of you who have expressed your doubts today. First of all, it will have added value if – as I myself hope and as many of you have said – we refrain from claiming that the report is a condemnation of the United States, and instead we declare that we want to ascertain the truth without making any blanket condemnations and without passing judgment, which is the job of the courts. Moreover, I believe that even those of you who expressed your doubts in your speeches can accept that this is an important report, provided that we emphasise one point: this report makes no decisions on events for which there is as yet no proof, since that will have to be established by the national enquiries.
I shall also take this opportunity to reject with absolute indignation the completely unsubstantiated allegations against President Barroso, which fortunately were only made by a single Member of this Parliament, Mr Catania: these are unworthy and unfounded accusations, and I feel duty-bound to emphatically reject them.
The added value of the investigation, which has culminated in Mr Fava’s report, lies in Parliament’s sending out a message of unity and firmness, particularly to terrorists. In my view, this message should make it clear beyond a shadow of doubt that the power of the law and of respect for fundamental rights will enable us to strike an even stronger blow against terrorism, rather than a weaker blow. The political message to terrorists must therefore run as follows: they should not see this as good news, because abiding by our laws and punishing those who break them makes our institutions stronger rather than weaker, precisely because terrorists break the law whereas we must obey it.
That is why I still hope that Parliament will adopt this report by a large majority, so as to encourage the Member States to fulfil their institutional and moral duty by establishing the whole truth and tightening up the rules in future, starting with the rules governing the secret services.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, we need greater Euro-Atlantic collaboration, greater collaboration with the United States, for the sake of the dual principle of security and respect for the rights of the individual. This, in my view, is the political lesson that we can learn from today’s debate."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples