Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-03-Speech-2-047"
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"en.20030603.2.2-047"2
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"Mr President, there are three fundamental questions to be answered: does this agreement make the fight against crime any more effective, will it strengthen the European Judicial Area, and is there any added value with regard to guarantees for the accused?
These questions cannot yet be answered in the affirmative, in my opinion. That is partly due to the procedure followed. Commissioner Vitorino said that this is the first Union agreement. It is a milestone, but milestones require a different procedure. Back-room discussions, confidential documents and a lack of appreciation of the European Parliament and the national parliaments – that is not the stuff milestones are made of. The fault for this lies entirely with Europe. The Justice and Home Affairs Council deserves to be graded an emphatic ‘unsatisfactory’. It beggars belief that here in Europe we have to fight for fundamental democratic rights such as parliamentary scrutiny.
The subject matter of the agreement also raises a lot of questions. In itself there is nothing unusual about this, but, that being the case, one has to be able to discuss them. For example, who ultimately takes the decision on extradition: the judges or the Ministries of Foreign Affairs? Who is extradited? How do we deal with the system of plea bargains? Mrs Buitenweg went into detail about that. For example, an in-depth analysis of the impact of the recent Homeland Security Act on data provided by the Union or its agencies is lacking. There is a risk of undermining the International Criminal Court. There is still no clarity as regards legal aid or the use of data for other purposes.
Then there is the point about Guantánamo. Various speakers – Mr Hernández Mollar, Chairman of the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, in particular – have spoken wise words on this subject. Something really has to be done about this.
In short, this is an agreement that cannot just be rushed through. The Council started in plenty of time, but has systematically had its back turned to both the national parliaments and the European Parliament, in contrast to the United States, which at least still consults its Congress.
Is this a milestone, then? Not yet."@en1
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