Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-03-Speech-2-285"
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"en.20090203.20.2-285"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Barrot, ladies and gentlemen, this House called for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay several times. We were joined by the other two institutions: the Commission and the Council. Now that the decision has been made, let there be no mistake about our position. We heartily congratulate President Obama on this decision, one that he justified with the need to reinvest the United States with the moral authority which it previously enjoyed in the world.
Let us be clear: the Bush Administration’s decision to open the prison at Guantánamo Bay, as well as the ‘extraordinary renditions’ programme, was a blow to that moral authority. The ends do not justify the means. It is not acceptable for international law to be violated, for torture to be carried out, for secret prisons to be opened or for prisoners to be made to disappear. In states governed by the rule of law, prisoners are brought to justice and have the right to defend themselves. The Bush Administration was wrong to commit these abuses, just as its accomplices, whether through conniving applause or ashamed silence, were also wrong.
If the United States requests the help of the European Union, it must not be refused – just, in fact, as Mr Barrot said – provided that we do not forego our citizens’ safety, but without using that as a pretext for non-collaboration. We also need the collaboration of the United States in order to shed light on the abuses that were committed in Europe, to investigate who was responsible and to ensure that the same crimes will not be repeated in the future. We must also ask the Member States and European institutions what they have done to implement the recommendations that this Parliament adopted in February 2007 and, where applicable, what explanation they give for not having done so.
Since Mr Fava referred to President Barroso here, I believe that a word of thanks is owed to him because, unlike the Council, which resisted, lied to and hid information from this House, the European Commission behaved loyally and collaborated fully with our investigations."@en1
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