Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-05-Speech-3-285"
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"en.20010905.9.3-285"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, these issues have a very close bearing on the debate we held this afternoon on the G8 summit in Genoa and all the events surrounding that meeting. I would like to remind Members of the unanimous position taken by the Council and the representatives of Member State governments on the question of security at European Council meetings and at other events that are likely to have a similar impact.
The Council reiterated that one of the European Union’s objectives is to maintain and develop the Union as an area of freedom, security and justice. In such an area, citizens must enjoy the right to freely express their opinions and to assemble in a peaceful manner. They must do so, however, in conditions where there is not a threat to their own security or to that of other citizens or properties. On 13 July this year, the Council and the representatives of the Member State governments therefore deplored the actions of those who abuse these democratic rights by initiating, planning and carrying out acts of violence to coincide with public demonstrations.
For the purpose of ensuring that these principles can also be applied in the context of important meetings, the Council and the representatives emphasised the need to establish a dialogue with non-governmental organisations, social partners and civil society, and also that we must build on and we shall build on the possibilities offered by existing legal instruments and bodies set up within the European Union.
Like Mr Vitorino before me, let me lay particular emphasis on the provisions of the Convention applying the Schengen Agreement and the joint action of 26 May 1997 on cooperation on law and order and security. The idea is that the task force of European Union chiefs of police should make a significant contribution to the practical implementation of cooperation between the law enforcement authorities of the Member States. Incidentally, this task force has absolutely nothing to do with what the author of one question described as a joint police unit in the context of an EU-led crisis-management action.
In reply to the two questions put, respectively, by Mr Krarup and Mr Korakas, during Question Time at Parliament’s last part session in July 2001, I had an opportunity, speaking on behalf of the Council, to detail the measures taken by the Swedish government during the Gothenburg Summit. In the same way, by letter of 11 July 2001, the Italian government informed us, under the procedures in force, of the measures it had taken under the second sentence of Article 2(2) of the Convention applying the Schengen Agreement.
At the Council meeting of 16 July 2001, the ministers declared themselves in favour of closer international cooperation to safeguard the exercise of freedom of expression on the one hand and, on the other, to ensure that public demonstrations of this kind can and do take place in a peaceful manner. Nonetheless, we must admit that responsibility for the maintenance of law and order on the territory of the EU Member States falls within the remit of their own national authorities. The Council is not authorised to comment on a matter that does not fall within the area of competence conferred on it by the Treaties."@en1
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