Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-21-Speech-4-009"
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"en.20000921.1.4-009"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission has been disturbed to see renewed acts of violence in the Basque Country. The Commission agrees with the repeated and forceful statements that have been made condemning these loathesome acts of terrorism committed in the territory of the Member States of the European Union – in all Member States, but particularly in Spain. Terrorism represents one of the greatest challenges our societies face and is unacceptable, because of the indiscriminate violence that characterises it, and which particularly affects the civilian population. Terrorist attacks shock and sadden the entire European public and fully deserve to be rejected because Europe's citizens continue to express their unrelenting desire to share a peaceful future. The Commission believes that the solidarity shown by the other Member States can and must support the Spanish authorities’ fight against terrorism. The Commission therefore welcomes the step forward represented by the enshrinement in the Treaty of Amsterdam of the principle of solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union specifically mentions terrorism as one of the forms of crime to be prevented and fought at European level and one of the areas in which the European Union can bring added value to this fight.
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The European dimension of the fight against terrorism is not, however, a recent concept. Some key acts of cooperation between the judicial systems and police services of at least two states, particularly on both sides of the French-Spanish border, have recently produced some good results in this fight against terrorism. For its part, the Commission is cooperating with the Member States and with Europol with the same aim. Similarly, in the framework of action by the Council of Europe and the United Nations, there are various appropriate international conventions against terrorism that have not yet been signed, but which are currently being negotiated.
Nevertheless, these new attacks unfortunately show that these efforts are still not enough to eliminate terrorism. We must go further in terms of European cooperation. A few words on behalf of the Commission would be appropriate here, heartfelt words of respect for and in tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks, who have often been representatives of the people, whose legitimacy comes from the ballot box in democratic elections. I also wish to pay tribute to those who have fallen victim to terrorism because they are carrying out their professional duties out of a sense of duty as servants of the state and of the people. But I also wish to pay tribute to those arbitrary victims of terrorism, the anonymous members of the public who refuse to live under the blackmail of fear. The finest tribute that I can pay is exactly this, to prove that we in the European institutions are able to contribute to this collective effort on the part of Europe’s citizens.
The Treaty of Amsterdam, as I have already stated, enables the European Union to make this contribution. Immediately following its entry into force, therefore, the Heads of State and Government meeting at the Tampere European Council included terrorism in their overall approach to combating all forms of crime. Clear political commitments were given, such as the commitment to set up joint investigation teams, which, in my view, represent the most effective instrument for fighting terrorism at its very roots. Europol, whose mandate expressly covers terrorism, must also give its support to this joint action and participate in these joint investigation teams. The greater operational capacity Europol has, the more effective its support will be. Although it is true that in many cases bilateral cooperation between police forces is an essential instrument for combating terrorism, it is no less true that the need to establish the link between some terrorist acts and other forms of organised crime, in its methods, in its networks of activity and even in its sources of financing, requires a multilateral, not just a bilateral vision of the phenomenon of terrorism.
Furthermore, Mr President, instruments for judicial cooperation, specifically those designed to prevent criminals from benefiting from and taking advantage of the differences in legislation across Europe, will also enable us to reduce, or even, one day, to eliminate all the obstacles that are raised when an application is made to extradite terrorists from one European Union country to another to stand trial. The path we must take is quite clear, as it was decided in Tampere that formal extradition proceedings between Member States for those who have actually been sentenced must in future be abolished. The principle of mutual recognition of judgments should also apply to final judgments, but also to judgments prior to the trial stage itself. A first objective would therefore be to guarantee that capture orders for the purpose of a trial are implemented, bearing in mind the gravity of the crimes we are talking about, in the event that several warrants are served on the same person.
Our institutional partners now have the responsibility of ensuring that these guidelines, which have already been accepted at political level, are translated more rapidly into laws and into action. Various essential actions for stepping up the fight against terrorism are already included in the scoreboard for the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice. I feel certain that these actions, particularly the commitment given by the Heads of State and Government to the effect that terrorism is one of the forms of crime on which the European institutions will have to adopt common definitions, charges and sanctions, will rapidly be given substance in order to send out a clear message that terrorist acts will not be protected by the legislation of any Member State.
I should therefore like to reiterate the Commission’s commitment to promoting more effective European action against terrorism, using all the means made available to it under the treaties, whether these terrorist acts take place in Spain or in any other Member State, as I have just been informed has happened tonight in the United Kingdom. In democratic societies such as ours, terrorism cannot take shelter behind any supposedly political justification. Terrorism, it must be said, is a dead end and the fact that it has fortunately disappeared from other European countries gives us cause for hope that sooner or later it will also be eliminated in Spain.
It is up to governments to demonstrate to the public in their countries the absurdity of terrorism and to attack it root and branch by means of a multifaceted intervention strategy. I am sure that democratic societies, of which we are proud to belong, will win this battle, as long as we do not abdicate our democratic values and demonstrate that democracy is a powerful system for fighting terrorism and therefore make both preventive policies and the repression of terrorist acts more effective. This is clearly what Spain is doing and is also what the Commission is committed to doing in the fields in which it has competence.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is an area of freedom which we all wish to strengthen. Hence, all terrorist attacks are not just attacks on democracy and the rule of law but they also prevent Europe’s citizens from enjoying the freedom that we all desire. Our commitment and our collective efforts must therefore be directed towards enabling everyone to fully enjoy this freedom. Freedom must not be surrendered to blackmail or to fear, because only in freedom can human dignity be experienced."@en1
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