Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-017"
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"en.20011212.2.3-017"2
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". – Mr President, this is a rather strange debate today. Different reports have been put together into an omnibus debate.
My report deals with the question of security at summits of the European Union and similar international gatherings and it looks also at the question of citizens' rights. It is important that when Parliament looks at problems that affect the Union, it must do so without victimising individual countries. Just as my recent report on terrorism sought to be a generic report and not one that referred exclusively to the situation in the Basque country in Spain, so this report sets out also to be a generic report and not one that seeks to be particularly critical of any one country.
We have seen violent protests at summits in EU countries – in Nice, Gothenburg and Genoa. Such protests have been serious, in the last instance resulting in a death. My report has been drawn up in my capacity as chairman of the Committee on Citizens' Rights and Freedoms, Justice and Home Affairs and I am pleased to say that it has enjoyed a wide consensus in that committee. I thank my colleagues for the work they have put into it and recommend that they adopt the report as it stands, and vote against the 30 amendments which have been submitted, which seem to me to relate to issues that have already been dealt with in committee.
In looking at the problems of violence that we have seen, the European Union must understand the causes of such violent protest and seek to prevent it. There seem to me to be two requirements in this. The first is that we must improve political dialogue on the right to peaceful assembly and to peaceful protest. The second is that we must find a firm, but proportionate, response to criminal behaviour by demonstrators.
I note that in Sweden and in Italy judicial proceedings have followed from the violent protests that we saw. The European Union, too, needs to look at whether citizens' rights have been violated, particularly in reference to Article 6 (1) and to Article 7 of our treaties. It must be recalled that Article 7 was strengthened by the European Council in Nice, which instructed the European institutions to monitor the application of fundamental rights even where there is simply a risk of a violation of them. In carrying out such surveillance, institutions must be guided by the European Charter on Fundamental Rights. Hence my report seeks to begin such a study of what has happened and look at whether we have in all cases abided by our commitments.
When hundreds of thousands of people representing NGOs and church groups gather on the streets to express their concern and choose to do so at a series of international meetings, it is not just a coincidence. It demands an appropriate response and, indeed, a political response. We must avoid a situation where no answer is given because a society where citizens are afraid of their institutions – and perhaps more importantly institutions are afraid of their citizens – makes for a very weak democracy. In this context I welcome the démarche taken by Mr Guy Verhofstadt in seeking to engage in dialogue with civil society, in advance of the meetings that have been held under the Belgian Presidency.
This approach needs to be complemented by a White Paper dealing with globalisation, looking at the European Union's position as a major actor in an area for which the Union is directly responsible and perhaps bringing together a number of Commissioners from different disciplines to look at a global strategy for the European Union.
We must look at Article 33 of the Treaty, which gives Member States the task of ensuring the maintenance of law and order, and see whether the responses have been appropriate. The weakness in cooperation between the Member States' law and order authorities is a fundamental weakness of the Union. I hope that we will be able to examine this in the context of the creation of a European area of freedom, security and justice.
Our citizens must know that they will receive the same treatment from authorities and enjoy the same rights under the law, whichever country they are in and wherever they are exercising their democratic rights."@en1
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