Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-289"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091124.32.2-289"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, committee chairmen, honourable Members, at the European Council on 10-11 December, a new five-year programme for the area of freedom, security and justice will be adopted. The programme is intended to supersede the current Hague Programme from 2004. The new programme has been preceded by a long preparatory process that was started more than two years ago by the future groups.
The principle of mutual recognition must continue to be a fundamental principle in our legal cooperation. A prerequisite for Member States wishing to recognise and enforce the judgments and decisions of other States is that there is mutual trust in one another’s legal systems. It is also a question of trust between our national authorities, and citizens should have trust in the measures that are decided on. One way of increasing trust is to increase our knowledge of one another’s legal systems. It may be a matter of providing training, exchange programmes, strengthening existing networks and well-developed evaluation mechanisms.
However, perhaps the most important measure for developing trust is to guarantee certain minimum rights irrespective of where someone is within the European Union. These are simple things such as being able to find out, in a language that you understand, what you are accused of and what rights you have as a suspect or victim in a legal process. It is very gratifying that, within the Council, we have been able to agree on a road map for how the procedural rights for suspects and defendants are to be dealt with and implemented step by step. It would be desirable for the road map to be included in the Stockholm Programme and I believe that it will be.
The Stockholm Programme should also clearly take the perspective of the victims of crime. Citizens who become victims of crime in their own country or in another Member State should receive relevant information in a language that they understand and be offered adequate support, information and protection prior to, during and after criminal proceedings. Victims should also be offered adequate compensation for the damage or injury they have suffered.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about the civil law issues which, to a large extent, affect the everyday lives of individuals. One specific issue is the review of the Brussels I Regulation on recognition and enforcement of judgments from other Member States. They may seem like very technical issues, but they are very important for individual citizens.
One of the most important issues is the abolition of the exequatur procedure. Currently, anyone who wishes to have a judgment enforced in another Member State must first apply for and then be granted enforcement by a court in that country. It takes time and incurs costs for the individual. We have noted that there is a high level of support for the abolition of the exequatur procedure, but it must be compatible with procedural guarantees and rules on the choice of law.
These are some of the major and important issues that have been highlighted by Sweden and by many Member States. Thank you very much for your attention and I look forward to listening to your comments and answering your questions. However, before I do that, I will pass the floor to my colleague, Mr Billström, who is responsible for some of the asylum and migration issues that will be important in the forthcoming Stockholm Programme and he will present these to you now.
The programme will be based on the Commission communication, but also on the many opinions that have been put forward by national parliaments, civil society and various EU bodies and agencies during the process. The programme is, of course, also a result of intensive contact and in-depth negotiations with the EU Member States and also with the European Parliament. The European Parliament’s attitude to the future cooperation is important, particularly in view of the greater role that Parliament will have as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon.
On the basis of the previous Tampere and Hague Programmes, significant progress has been made by the EU in the area of freedom, security and justice. However, Europe is still facing challenges that we need to deal with jointly at European level. The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon will give us new opportunities to do that and the new multi-annual work programme – the Stockholm Programme – will therefore be based on the new opportunities that the Treaty of Lisbon provides.
The vision of the Stockholm Programme is for a safer and more open Europe where the rights of individuals are protected. The needs of citizens, of individuals, will form the basis for future cooperation in this area in a way that is much more evident than it was previously. We are working on behalf of the citizens, and they need to feel that future EU cooperation is important to them. It should therefore be based on real problems, ask relevant questions and focus on specific measures that will provide added value to people’s everyday lives.
Future cooperation in this area must also be based on a better balance between measures aimed at creating a safe and secure Europe and measures aimed at protecting the rights of individuals.
From the citizens’ perspective, combating crime is important. Citizens expect EU cooperation to make it easier to prevent cross-border crime, but they also expect freedom and justice. As I have emphasised to the European Parliament previously, measures aimed at providing increased security and measures to ensure legal certainty and the rights of individuals go hand in hand and, of course, this is also possible.
When it comes to combating cross-border crime, the challenges are great. Drugs trafficking, people-trafficking and terrorism are a reality on our continent, while at the same time, we have new types of crime, as a result of the internet, for example. We cannot allow national or administrative borders to prevent the crime-fighting authorities from carrying out their work efficiently.
Cross-border crime-fighting cooperation has been developed, but we still have more to do to achieve effective European police and criminal law cooperation. We need common solutions to common problems. Well-developed police cooperation, an efficient exchange of information and experience and well-developed working methods are fundamental in dealing with these problems.
A key element of combating crime is, of course, an efficient exchange of information, tailored to our needs. At European level we should, in certain cases, standardise the exchange of information, adapt it to our needs and make it more efficient. At the same time, it is extremely important to ensure that the exchange of information complies with the basic requirements for data protection and the protection of privacy that we must impose and that no more information is gathered and stored than is needed to serve the purpose. We must create a secure Europe in which cross-border crime is combated effectively, while at the same time, the privacy of individuals is respected. It is completely possible and absolutely necessary to do both of these things. It is a matter of finding the right balance for the various measures."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples