Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-044"
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"en.20000217.3.4-044"2
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"Mr President, I too agree that the convention that we are examining is but a small step – and still too small a step – towards the construction of the common area of freedom, security and justice which Europe will hopefully one day become.
It is today an area for the free movement of goods and persons, in which there are no frontiers to crime, but in which significant barriers still exist to those whose duty it is to combat crime.
A small step – I say – but nonetheless a welcome one, for which the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs has quite correctly wanted to prescribe further restrictions and guarantees in the name of the defence of the fundamental rights of the individual that are in force in the Member States and in the Union itself, even if these are not yet enshrined in a European Union charter of rights, which we hope will soon come into being: just restrictions and guarantees because, unfortunately, existing rights are, in practice, not always respected by every public authority in every Member State.
Certain isolated passages in the Commission’s proposal perhaps err on the side of caution, as is the case when it is maintained that the detainee accused should be given the choice of whether to accept or refuse temporary transfer to another Member State of the Union for the purposes of preliminary enquiries. I personally find it unacceptable, for example, for Mr Pinochet to be given the option to move to Spain for a confrontation. Or when it is maintained that the witness or expert witness – and not simply the defendant – should have a counsel at their side during examination via a video or telephone link. These are nevertheless minor flaws, which the rapporteur did not want and which – I hope – will be remedied when this Chamber comes to vote.
The rapporteur has made laudable efforts, which should not go unnoted and for which I would like to thank him. The overall result is remarkable and I hope that the Council will fully take it into account.
There is, as has already been said, one point still to resolved, which is also the most delicate one: it concerns article 18 of the convention, which relates to the interception of communications originating in one Member State, but which are directly performed by another Member State, without the assistance being requested of the State in which the interception is being carried out, something which is now possible thanks to the latest technology. This is a highly controversial issue as it constitutes a potential source of abuse.
It could be maintained that in overall terms the legislation proposed is better than nothing, but to the Commission it nevertheless appeared insufficient and far from reassuring. It thus merits further reflection which, at a time in which the ambivalent reports on ECHELON are evoking shades of Big Brother, should probably go into greater detail on the means and methods to be used, on the one hand, to safeguard the rights of the individual, and on the other hand to facilitate an effective but at the same time correct and legitimate suppression of crime.
The objective is thus to achieve, as closely as possible, a fine balance between the fight against organised crime and respect for personal freedoms and the dignity of the individual: an objective which now specifically applies not only to the Member States, but also to the Union, which is aspiring to become a common area of freedom, justice and security. This is a distant goal, but is one that can be attained in stages. The most important thing will be the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States, but for now let us content ourselves with this small step forward, as it is a step in the right direction."@en1
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