Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-23-Speech-3-168"
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"en.20021023.3.3-168"2
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"Madam President, I should like to express my thanks for a long and exciting debate, and I should like to make a couple of comments. Many have talked about the balance we need to find between the effective combating of terrorism, on the one hand, and consideration for citizens’ rights on the other.
If we wish to create an international community founded on the rule of law, in which states bring matters before the courts instead of taking the law into their own hands, what is also required is the resolve to act – if necessary using force – against those powers which, using violence and terror, try to drain the lifeblood of open, democratic and constitutional states. There is of course a need to be able to cooperate in taking such resolute action. I do not believe that preventive action can be excluded if there are clear indications of impending attack or of exposure to terrorism or such like. It may, then, make sense, of course, to prevent such an attack or strike.
With regard to the EU’s role and position, I want to say that we are actively involved in this confrontation with international terrorism. We want to see the people responsible brought before the courts so that their crimes can be discovered in the course of a procedure that complies with the principles of the rule of law governing fair trials. In the EU, we are very aware of the fact that the combating of terrorism must not involve infringements of human rights. Just as the end must not justify the means and can never legitimise terrorism, so the end must not justify the means in our fight against terrorism.
With regard to financial resources, the Council has, as a follow-up to Resolution 1373, taken steps to freeze funds belonging to terrorists and terrorist organisations. The first terrorist lists were adopted in December of last year. Since then, the EU’s terrorist list has been revised twice during the Spanish Presidency, and a further revision is anticipated in the very near future during the Danish Presidency. It would be wrong to comment on possible changes until the list is ready, so I shall avoid doing that.
As quite a few rapporteurs have also mentioned, the relationship between the EU and the United States is basically rock-solid and founded upon a community of values. We are each other’s most important partners, cooperating politically, militarily, economically and culturally, and 11 September has bound us together more closely. We need the United States, and the United States needs us. What binds us together is more important that what divides us.
At the extraordinary Council meeting on 21 September of last year, we sent a strong signal of solidarity and cooperation to the United States. It is binding upon us, and it has been a success that will now hopefully be crowned by the signing of an agreement on mutual legal assistance and extradition. It is the case in this field as in others that, when the EU and the United States stand shoulder to shoulder, there is a lot we can do for justice and freedom in the world. It is crucial that we maintain the close cooperation with the United States, both in this and other areas, and we must of course constantly work to ensure that the United States chooses to act multilaterally rather than unilaterally."@en1
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