Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-011"
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"en.20080923.4.2-011"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Mr Deprez, rapporteurs, ladies and gentlemen, this is a day for the French, and it is also my day: I would ask you to kindly excuse the unexpected absence of Rachida Dati, but it is an honour for me to participate once again in the work of your Parliament, particularly on the sensitive subjects that have just been spoken about. I would particularly like to express the gratitude of the Council Presidency to Mrs Roure and Mrs Lefrançois for the personal commitment they have demonstrated and the interest they are showing in the issues of combating terrorism and the protection of data.
Moving on now to the framework decision on the protection of personal data, presented by Mrs Roure – it is a fact that there is very little, or even no regulation of so-called ‘sovereign’ files, particularly as regards public security, as you pointed out, Mrs Roure. However, it is in this area that it is particularly important to manage and regulate data exchanges, with the aim of protecting public freedoms. You are right: we must act quickly and effectively, while respecting the rights of those whose data are exchanged, retained and stored.
The Justice Ministers reached agreement on 8 November 2007 on a draft framework decision. As you yourself have pointed out, some of you in this Parliament would have liked to go further. The Presidency is aware of this, but the framework decision on which the Council secured unanimous agreement at the end of a debate lasting more than two years is a first step, providing the EU minimum standards for personal data within the framework of criminal cooperation, at a time when no common rules have ever existed within the framework of the third pillar. It is a compromise; that is how Europe is built, particularly in this area. It is a compromise, but that does not make it a second-rate decision. Rather, it is the best possible result today, as it fills a void and opens the way for further developments.
It is the first step towards the regulation of data exchanges for legal purposes within the framework of the European Union, the application of which can be controlled much more effectively than within the Council of Europe. The transposition and application of this framework decision could be submitted to the Justice and Home Affairs Council for evaluation, as was the case, for example, with the European arrest warrant.
Eventually, when our institutional framework has evolved – which we all hope will happen – it will be possible for infringement proceedings to be launched by the Commission, Vice-President. The question in Europe is often to know whether we are better with minimum standards that can be raised later on or whether we should stick with the status quo, which today means extremely varied standards of data protection, a lack of proper control by the European institutions, and bilateral negotiations on the exchange of data with third countries, which do not offer our citizens sufficient guarantees and can be performed without our consent. That is the case with the bilateral agreements made with the United States.
Personally, I believe it is better to go forward rather than to maintain the status quo. In our view, the framework decision is the first vital step. Furthermore, the work done by previous Presidencies has basically enabled us to find points of balance that also take account of your concerns. I will mention a few of these, Mrs Roure.
The first is that the future framework decision will indeed apply only to data exchanged between Member States, as you have pointed out, but the Member States have also made a commitment to adapt their own levels of protection. One clause you should look at is Article 27, strengthened by recital 8 of this framework decision, which invites the Commission to extend the scope of the text after a period of five years, and it could concern national data. As the Council Presidency, we do not see any drawbacks to this.
The second is that all data exchanges are subject to the proportionality principle, which means it is possible to check, on a case-by-case basis, the purpose for which the data are being transferred and whether or not the volume of data being exchanged is greater than strictly necessary.
The third is that the transfer of data to third countries is subject to important conditions and safeguards to provide an adequate level of protection. You are well aware that this provision has not gone unnoticed among some of our external partners, whose names I have mentioned. Article 14 is a bulwark that we can rely on to prevent the transfer to third countries, without our consent, of personal data we have transmitted to another Member State. It also gives us an assurance about the equivalence of the level of data protection in this other Member State.
Fourthly and finally, the Member States have made a commitment to report on their national measures to the Commission, which will present its assessment and proposals for the modification of this first framework to Parliament and the Council. Consequently, you will be fully involved in the follow-up to this framework decision.
Mr President, rapporteurs, ladies and gentlemen, the Presidency is well aware of your attachment to the respect for fundamental rights within the European Union and I would like to stress that the future group, which has brought together the six justice ministers from Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, France, the Czech Republic and Sweden, has made strengthening data protection a priority for the European Union in the coming years. It is a concern shared by all the Member States, and all the Justice Ministers supported it during the informal Council meeting on 25 July.
With these two texts, Parliament now has a firm grip on current developments and the everyday life of European society. We need to protect our citizens from terrorist threats, and we also need to safeguard their private lives and privacy. That is political responsibility in its noblest sense. I would like to respond to several points regarding the two reports just presented.
That is what I wished to say to Parliament, Mr President.
First of all, with regard to the draft framework decision on combating terrorism, combating terrorism is a challenge for the European Union that requires the pooling of all our efforts. Mr de Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, whom I met several weeks ago, has also told this Parliament that the activity of Al-Qaeda, for example, is particularly worrying. There were 583 terrorist attacks on European soil in 2007. The framework decision you are looking at today is therefore a major legislative step forward in combating the spread of terrorist techniques.
It is unacceptable, for example, that a website can explain how to make homemade bombs with complete impunity. Today there are nearly 5 000 websites contributing to the radicalisation of young people in Europe on these issues, and the Slovenian Presidency, as you know, managed to secure an agreement on these challenges at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 18 April.
I welcome the report by Mrs Lefrançois, who has supported the Council's objective of incorporating, in the framework decision of 13 June 2002, the offences provided for in the Council of Europe Convention. Her proposals largely tie up with the amendments made by the Council during the negotiations and, as you know, discussions within the Council on this text were very lively. Clearly we are in the midst of a classic debate for all democratic societies seeking to combat terrorism effectively while respecting the fundamental rules of the rule of law and fundamental principles, such as freedom of expression, that govern all democratic life.
I would like to draw your attention to two points. Firstly, this framework decision aims to make criminal offences of three types of behaviour likely to occur before attacks are actually perpetrated: public provocation to terrorism – and I stress the word ‘public’, which thus excludes the regulation of private exchanges of correspondence – training for terrorism, and finally recruitment for terrorism. It would create offences for the European Union that Member States are already familiar with through the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, finalised in 2005.
The definitions of these offences have been copied word for word in the framework decision, with a few limited changes for consistency with the concepts of ‘terrorist offence’ and ‘terrorist group’ that have existed in European law since 2002; hence, Mrs Lefrançois, the term ‘public provocation’ instead of ‘incitement’, which you are proposing. The adoption of a text at European level will make it easier to control its transposition within the Member States and to apply it more quickly throughout EU territory.
The second consideration is that the Council paid particular attention to respect for fundamental rights. This concern was expressed at the round table Parliament organised on 7 April this year. The Council was very aware of the discussions that had taken place in Parliament and was careful to follow the approach adopted in the Council of Europe. Safeguard clauses were added to the initial proposal – two in particular, regarding freedom of the press and freedom of expression on the one hand, and proportionality of the criminalisation of offences defined by national law on the other.
It should also be noted that the Council did not retain the proposals aimed at introducing rules on extra-territorial jurisdiction, which your rapporteur did not approve of anyway. A concern for balance therefore motivated the Council during the negotiations, leading to a text that largely takes account of your concerns."@en1
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