Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-12-Speech-1-172-000"
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"en.20111212.17.1-172-000"2
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"Mr President, I congratulate Ms Sippel as rapporteur for leading us to a successful conclusion and I, as always, welcome the full support and backing of Vice-President Reding.
It is clear that a person who is arrested or questioned is in a vulnerable position and deserves to know their rights and how to apply them, but the quality of information provided is often poor. People often do not understand what rights they have, and this ignorance is exacerbated by being a foreigner and not speaking the local language. A particular need, given that we know that there is discrimination in granting of bail, is to know how to contest pre-trial detention.
EU laws are needed, backed by enforcement powers, to make concrete the rights theoretically available under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Parliament rightly fought for information to be provided as soon as possible, as soon as someone is informed they are a suspect. No one should be left for hours in a police cell to stew without knowing what is happening to them or being able to contact a lawyer or consular help.
We also rightly insisted on the accused person or their lawyer having access to all material possessed by police or prosecutors that will be used as evidence, and at an early enough stage for a proper defence to be mounted.
Like Vice-President Reding, I believe MEPs’ success in inserting a right to silence is very important. I am glad that my own country, the UK, has opted into this measure, whatever else it is doing elsewhere, as it did with the first one on the procedural rights road map on the right to interpretation and translation.
I am hopeful that the UK will also take part in the third measure on access to legal assistance and advice. The UK has a good record in the field of defence rights, so in this area my country needs to be fully engaged.
Of course, we are many years overdue in matching the strengthened cross-border powers of prosecutors with stronger rights for accused persons. I hope that we have put one more brick in the foundations of fair trials across the EU so that miscarriages of justice over measures like the European Arrest Warrants will become a thing of the past."@en1
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