Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-057"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080923.4.2-057"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, our open democratic societies are a strength, but their very openness can be exploited to become a vulnerability. It is this aspect which we are discussing today. Of course, security is not just some technical process. Security and liberty are complementary, and our strongest protection is a united, cohesive society in each of our nations, based on shared democratic values and mutual trust.
However, in recent years, our institutions and traditional values have been under constant assault from within and without. At the same time, we have seen the growth of subcultures within our own societies that are scornful of our liberal values, deliberately seeking to establish alternative political and legal structures, sometimes through the use of violence, and sheltering behind our complex and generous legal systems and our liberal view of human rights.
The EU often has not helped. Unfortunately, it sees every crisis as an opportunity to extend its own powers and rarely asks whether its actions in one area are having a detrimental effect in another. I question, for example, the open-border policy, the lax approach to asylum and immigration and the attempts to introduce the Charter of Fundamental Rights onto the statute book.
While I am sure we all wish to find ways of combating the threat of terrorism, I am not at all clear why the EU feels it necessary, with its framework decision, to duplicate action that has already been taken in the Council of Europe.
All EU Member States are members of that body, along with 19 other states, and presumably they will already have legislated appropriately. There is, however, an area of Council of Europe competence which would benefit from review, and I refer to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is a convention that was drawn up in very different circumstances, over 50 years ago. Its judicial interpretation often creates an obstacle to the deportation of terrorists from our countries. If we want to do something useful, perhaps we could agree that it would be useful to have a fresh look at the ECHR."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples