Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-21-Speech-1-131"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050221.15.1-131"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Mr Frattini, ladies and gentlemen, implementing the area of freedom, security and justice is one of the most stimulating challenges facing the EU, of which the most important element, as we proposed in the Hague Programme, is the need to ensure high quality justice throughout Union territory, without prejudice to the plurality of the existing judicial systems in the 25 Member States.
In accordance with the Hague Programme, as is already the case with Tampere, the cornerstone in building the area of freedom, security and justice is mutual recognition, as Mr Frattini has just reminded us. In order for mutual recognition to exist, however, there must also be mutual trust, and, as Mr Di Pietro highlighted just now, mutual trust is not a matter of faith. Mutual trust must be built up and must work effectively. We must acknowledge that among our 25 Member States – among the judicial authorities of our 25 Member States – such mutual trust does not exist to a satisfactory degree. Mutual trust must be stepped up. I therefore begin this initiative report by proposing that there should be a mutual evaluation mechanism among the various Member States. Clearly, such a mechanism will respect the independence of judicial authority, and will involve the national parliaments and the judiciary’s governing bodies. Accordingly, our evaluation will be the result of a broad range of views on the quality of criminal justice in each of the Member States.
Secondly, I feel that it is crucial that this evaluation should be an objective evaluation, and in order for this to be the case I propose that a Quality Charter for Criminal Justice should be created. The Charter should be created on the basis of the interpretation of the right to a judge in the European Declaration of Human Rights, on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Communities, and on the basis of both United Nations and Council of Europe recommendations. This Quality Charter must act as an objective reference framework enabling evaluation of the different criminal justice systems in the different Member States. In this way, we can spread best practice, we can have benchmarking exercises and we can ensure that all European citizens, wherever they may be in EU territory, enjoy high standards of quality.
We are all aware, however, that in addition to mutual recognition, there must also be a minimum level of harmonisation. The Council has set out the criterion for the harmonisation of material criminal law, and our report proposes that we endorse the Council’s proposal. The Council has called on the Commission to prepare for harmonisation of the list of offences referred to in the Constitutional Treaty at the earliest opportunity, so that by the time the Constitutional Treaty enters into force the preparatory work will have been completed and the Council can quickly, in conjunction with Parliament, adopt the harmonisation standards called for in the new Treaty.
With regard to procedural law, we feel that we must be selective, yet ambitious as to the scope of our action. We therefore propose four key areas: firstly, the harmonisation of standards relating to the gathering and assessment of key evidence, an issue that the Commission has said it is already working on; secondly, harmonisation enabling sentences to be served, and ensuring that any preventative measures applied are executed; thirdly, the minimum rights of detainees in any Member State; and, finally, the consideration of further conviction in respect of acts already subject to harmonisation measures.
With this report Parliament calls on the Council and the Commission to speed up their work so that all of us, working together, can make a contribution to an area of freedom, security and justice with higher quality criminal justice in Europe."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples