Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-31-Speech-3-200"
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"en.20010131.11.3-200"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the rapporteur for the work that he has done on a very difficult and complex issue. He has brought some logic and sense to it but while giving praise, I have some criticisms and some points that I cannot agree with. On any of these issues we must be very careful that we do not come out in a rush of Christian frenzy, thinking that we are going to solve all of the problems of all of the crime in the European Union simply by setting up another institution or another office with more staff, and coordinating and harmonising more power into a central authority.
There are already examples of where cooperation and coordination work. We have Europol, and other institutions like this, where different agencies in different Member States working together can achieve results. We also have the opportunity to assess other Member States and take the best practices from them and use those as a common minimum standard for all Member States. However, we still have differences of law within the Member States. We still have different legal systems, for instance. In Ireland and Britain we still work under the old common law system whereas on the mainland of Europe you have the civil law system. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to marry these two together, so we must always work on the basis of three tenets of how things should operate.
Number one: effectiveness, number two: speed, and number three: justice; and we must not forget the word ‘justice’. People should have the right to defend themselves when they are accused or allegations made against them. Perhaps it is only a problem of interpretation, but some of the suggestions for the fast-track approach seem to be saying we have to cut through some of the present legal impediments for instance with regard to the right of appeal.
I am particularly happy that Ireland gets honourable mention because of the Criminal Assets Bureau. I would encourage each and every Member of this House and every Member State to look at how the Criminal Assets Bureau operates in Ireland and how successful it has been since its establishment.
One proposal which I oppose – and we have asked for a separate vote – is on the question of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office. I am totally opposed to a European Public Prosecutor’s Office with its powers extending over the territory of all the Member States.
Finally, sanctioning Member States is a very dangerous area. We already have experience of how it can go wrong and how difficult it is to reverse. It is better to rely on cooperation; the carrot works a lot better than the stick."@en1
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