Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-18-Speech-2-391"
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"en.20100518.32.2-391"2
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"Madam President, I agree with all the speakers and with all those Members who have been working on the subject. The accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights is a step of constitutional importance. It will complete the system of protection of fundamental rights within the Union, and you know perfectly well that the Lisbon Treaty does not make this an option but a destination.
The Commission is therefore strongly in favour of having a permanent full-time judge elected for the Union, who enjoys the same status and has the same duties as his peers. An ad hoc judge, who would intervene only in cases brought against the Union or involving Union law, would, in our opinion, not be sufficient.
As for the method of electing a Union judge, the normal procedure provided for in the convention should apply.
This means that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council will elect a judge from a proposal for three candidates presented by the European Union, and I agree with the draft report that an appropriate number of Members of Parliament should be allowed to participate in sessions of the Assembly when it elects the judges of the European Court.
The procedure for drawing up the list of the three candidates is not a matter for the accession agreement: it is a matter for us. We have to do this by internal legal rules, and the idea that Parliament should be involved in a way similar to that provided for by Article 255 regarding the selection of candidates for the Court of Justice is a very interesting one which deserves close examination.
Honourable Members, the Spanish Presidency attaches very high priority to this dossier, as you know, and the Spanish Presidency would like to reach an agreement before the end of June. If the Council could reach an agreement by then – which I hope it will – this will allow us to then start accession negotiations after summer. As I already said two weeks ago in Brussels, I will ensure that the Commission – as the Union’s negotiator – keeps Parliament fully informed throughout the negotiation process.
This all relates to European affairs, but we also have the question of international human rights on the agenda. As you know, 138 states took a step forward in 1998 when they adopted the Rome Statute creating, for the first time in history, a permanent international court to ensure that perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are brought to account. The Court started to operate in 2003 and now, seven years later, we have the review conference in Kampala, which invites us to conduct an early analysis of the Court’s activities, of the challenges that lie ahead and of the effectiveness of EU support.
As regards the activities of the Court, we know that the Court is fully operational, but is still in its infancy. No judicial cycle has been completed, but the ICC is considering the situation in five countries: one trial has started, another trial is going to start on 5 July and one further case is in the pre-trial stage – all for DAR and DRC.
Let us not forget that this is only a court of last resort, so the primary responsibility lies with the states themselves. In most cases, the Court acts as a catalyst for states to investigate and prosecute cases before national courts. At the same time, in its short life, the Court has been a powerful deterrent for future atrocities because perpetrators now know that justice will prevail and, in this sense, the Court faces challenges.
The ratification by Bangladesh brought the number of State Parties to the Rome Statute to 111. However, it is very clear that we have to go for universal acceptance of the Statute and of the Court. The Court needs the participation and the cooperation of all State Parties and non-Parties, as well as international and regional organisations. The Court cannot perform its functions without the states arresting those for whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the ICC; nor if the witnesses cannot be protected; nor if there are no prisons for those who have been condemned, and that is why the EU supported the Court over the last ten years to help solve these problems.
We, as the EU, have, from the outset, been staunch supporters of the establishment of the Court as an essential mechanism in the new international order designed to end impunity which, as you know, has seen millions of people in recent history subjected to crimes but only a handful of those responsible brought to justice.
I therefore welcome the fact that Parliament takes such a great interest in this file – and has from the very beginning, by the way – which is evidenced by the resolution which Parliament has put on the table.
The EU considers that an effective ICC is an indispensable instrument for the international community to combat this impunity and to promote a rule-based international order. That is why we have been supporting the Court using the various instruments at our disposal that the Minister has already mentioned. The common position was translated into an action plan. We were the first organisation to enter into a cooperation and assistance agreement with the Court in 2006, and we give the ICC full political and diplomatic support with démarches, political dialogues and statements. The inclusion of ICC clauses in international agreements is now standard practice for the European Union.
Since 2000, the European Initiative – later entitled the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights – has contributed EUR 29 million to support the Court directly or indirectly, notably through global civil society campaigns. The EU has also adopted several decisions in the justice, freedom and security area with a view to strengthening cooperation among Member States in the investigation and prosecution of Rome Statute crimes at national level, so we do our best in order to advance the system. The system needs further perfection, but it needs strong engagement by all nations around the globe for this to happen.
In particular, I would like to thank the rapporteurs of the Committee on Constitutional Rights and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs for their excellent cooperation on the file. I would like to thank them for the hearing which was organised and which was of real help and great use in bringing this file forward.
The draft report presented by Mr Jáuregui Atondo is, to a very large extent, in line with the position of the Commission. Let me just mention three points which, in my view, are very important.
Firstly, the Commission shares the position that accession by the EU to the additional protocols of the European Convention – which, by the way, have not been ratified by all Member States – is also very desirable. Indeed, many of these protocols are of potential relevance as regards the exercise of the Union’s powers, and certain guarantees enshrined in these protocols are also reflected in the Charter. The negotiation directives should therefore mandate the Commission to negotiate a provision ensuring that the Union may accede to any of the additional protocols.
The decision then to which protocols we will de facto accede, on top of the convention itself, will have to be taken unanimously by the Council after obtaining the consent of Parliament. In the Commission’s view, such decisions should preferably encompass all additional protocols and should be taken together with the decision concluding the accession agreement itself.
Secondly, it is important to deal with the specific situation of the Union as a distinct legal entity vested with autonomous powers that is going to become a contracting Party to a mechanism initially designed for States only. Therefore, a number of limited and technical procedural adaptations to the convention are necessary with regard to the specific nature of Union law.
Among those is the so-called ‘co-respondent mechanism’ to take account of the decentralised implementation of Union law by Member States. By that mechanism, the Union will receive the right to join the proceedings as a co-respondent in cases brought against Member States when Union law is at stake. I am glad to see that Parliament’s report also argues in favour of this.
Thirdly, I fully subscribe to the report which recommends participation by representatives of the Union in the bodies of the convention on an equal footing with those of the contracting parties. Such participation is indeed a key element in the smooth integration and insertion of the Union into the system of the convention. You have understood this now to mean, in particular, the presence in the Strasbourg Court of a judge elected from each contracting party."@en1
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