Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-027"
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"en.20050607.5.2-027"2
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".
Mr President, I am not sure whether I am speaking on behalf of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or on my own behalf — I rather believe I am speaking on my own behalf.
In any event, it is clear that this is an important debate. Several reports are being presented to this House today, each of which has followed its own course through the committee stage, and, together, they demonstrate very clearly the importance that this Parliament attaches to this debate.
The rapporteurs for these reports deserve our congratulations and we should also be pleased that they have appreciated the need to accept many amendments that have improved them and have clarified some of the statements contained in the original texts, in some cases in a very significant manner. In any event, today this Parliament will make very clear its commitment to an extremely vigorous fight against terrorism in terms of policing, in terms of judicial efficiency, but one that, at the same time, is extremely respectful of human rights, of data protection, of the guarantees without which this fight against terrorism makes no sense, a fight that takes account of the victims of terrorism, on the basis of respect — it naturally does not put political decisions into their hands, that would not be appropriate, but it is logical that they should have a voice and be heard directly — and which, without justifying terrorism nor those who sacrifice themselves or are capable of indiscriminate murder in any way, without justifying it under any circumstances, it is an anti-terrorist policy that deals with the possible reasons why somebody may become a terrorist.
We cannot look at terrorism as if it had just landed from Mars. There are situations which lead to people being prepared to kill, and that does not excuse the individuals who do so, but it does oblige us, as politicians, to examine why and which specific situations lie behind this behaviour.
The balance, therefore, between this vigorous fight, this examination of the reality as it stands, and respect for human rights, is actually a real balance which, if translated from these reports into political action, could have significant results.
Some amendments remain alive, and some of them I presented myself on behalf of my group — in this case, it was on behalf of my group. I would like to highlight two of them.
Firstly, we are talking about terrorism from many sources and, therefore, to mention Islam, even if we only say, ‘We believe that Islam is fundamentally fine, but we are worried about Islamic terrorists’, would be to mix terrorism with Islam. We therefore propose the removal of any reference to Islam in this document, because otherwise we could be producing a list of those who are potential terrorists. We have not done that, and it would be very dangerous to do so because we would always leave somebody out. Let us not, therefore, mix up terrorism and Islam, even if that only means introducing a clause stating that ‘Islam is fundamentally okay’, which is what these reports apparently intend to do unless this amendment is approved.
Secondly, we propose the removal of any reference to the International Criminal Court. We believe that this court is only now beginning its work, and to complicate its operation through a debate on its powers in the anti-terrorist field would only jeopardise its operation. Let us, therefore, leave that debate out of the issue we are dealing with today. There are other ways to deal with it, and today we should be dealing with what is already operational.
Finally, I would like to say to Mr Gijs de Vries, who is honouring us with his presence today, that the important thing is to turn all of this into political action and concrete measures."@en1
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