Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-010"
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"en.20080923.4.2-010"2
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Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased that today we are holding a joint debate on the report by my colleague Mrs Lefrançois on combating terrorism and my own report on the protection of personal data processed within the framework of police and judicial cooperation. It should be remembered that the fight against terrorism cannot really be effective and proportionate unless we guarantee that the fundamental rights of each citizen are strengthened. We must use our fundamental values of respect for fundamental rights to combat the terrorist movements that threaten our democratic societies.
In my view, the Commission’s proposal on combating terrorism was unbalanced because it simply strengthened security while neglecting many measures to protect fundamental freedoms. In this regard, I congratulate Mrs Lefrançois and her colleagues once again for their rebalancing of the text to ensure that it safeguards respect for human rights and freedoms.
Terrorist networks, as we know, increasingly make use of new information technologies, including the Internet, for their incitement and recruitment activities. Surveillance of this type of activity on the Internet requires the collection of a large amount of personal data, but collection must take place with the guarantee of a high level of protection for this personal data.
I would like to remind the Council of the commitments it made when adopting the Directive on the retention of data. At the time, we expressed our wish that valuable information for combating terrorism could indeed be used. In exchange, the Council has a duty to honour its commitment and adopt a framework decision on the protection of personal data that offers a high level of protection.
My warmest thanks go to all my colleagues in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and to everyone who worked with me, particularly the shadow rapporteurs, because the amendments we are proposing in my report were approved unanimously in committee. These amendments are proof that we will not put up with harmonisation to the lowest common denominator. We believe that the scope of the framework decision should be broad so that it is not limited solely to data exchanged between the Member States. It must also apply to data processed at national level, which would enable cooperation between the Member States’ various police and judicial authorities to be strengthened while guaranteeing an equivalent level of data protection throughout the European Union. The principles of purpose limitation and proportionality need to be guaranteed by specifying and restricting the cases where data can be processed further. You must realise how essential this is! Data must not be used for a purpose other than that for which it was collected. We do not wish to prohibit all transfers of data to third countries, since such transfers may prove necessary as part of the fight against terrorism. However, for each transfer, an assessment must be made of whether the third country in question is providing an adequate level of protection of personal data, and I would underline the fact that this assessment must be made by an independent authority.
We are asking the Council to include, in the framework decision, provisions concerning national authorities that have access to data collected by private parties, in accordance – may I remind you again – with the commitments made following the adoption of the ‘Data Retention Directive’ by the British Presidency.
Finally, the use of sensitive data, such as data relating to political opinions, religious beliefs, health or sex life must, as a matter of principle, be prohibited, contrary to what is currently proposed in the framework decision. You will notice that, with its amendment, the European Parliament is overturning the Council’s proposal, which permits the processing of these data under certain conditions. On the contrary, Parliament wants the processing of these data prohibited, while providing for exceptions. The process has been totally reversed, and this is important to us. By adopting this position, the European Parliament wishes to respect people’s dignity, and we think that the Council should be able to agree with us on this necessity."@en1
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