Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-018"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I will address all at the same time the many sensitive issues raised by the rapporteurs, to whom I have listened with great attention and whom I sincerely thank for having drawn attention to matters of exceptional interest for the democratic life of Europe.
I can tell you that an important seminar is taking place in Brussels on this issue as we speak, with 150 representatives of the 25 Member States in attendance. This meeting provides a positive response: there is broad consensus on the principle elements of this future programme. We will organise a second European public seminar in September in order to then be able to present a tangible programme by the end of the year. In this context, we will have a sum of EUR 1.5 million available for studies relating to best practice in the exchange of information among Member States on the security standards for critical infrastructures. Each Member State must obviously invest in the structures in place on its own territory.
With regard to the funding of terrorism, which is the subject addressed in Mr Borghezio’s report, I am in agreement with the main points outlined in the report. With reference to the not-for-profit sector, the Commission is working on a kind of European code of conduct with a view to tackling the vulnerability of the sector, which, in certain instances – as has been discovered – directly or indirectly supported terrorist organisations. In order to do so, however, we call for large-scale cooperation from the not-for-profit sector itself and from civil society, which is, like us, keen to root out all those who assist terrorist activity in any way. In addition, we certainly have in mind a better exchange of information among national authorities with regard to the funding of terrorism. We are assessing this issue, and a communication is being prepared by the Commission.
There is a further, extremely sensitive issue: the traceability of financial transactions. It is obvious that, in the absence of the necessary instruments for investigating the trail of financial transactions, we are deprived of an effective instrument for clamping down on terrorist funding. With regard to this issue, we therefore aim by this summer to propose to Parliament and the Council a draft regulation on information and the instruments that will be used in tracing financial transactions.
Then there are the three reports by Mr Duquesne, which touch on a subject which is particularly close to my heart: the link between action against terrorism and personal data protection. I believe that the amendments tabled with a view to supplementing and improving the Swedish proposal must be upheld. They are amendments that take account of the important conference held a few days ago in Poland, and which highlight the importance of every person’s right to personal data protection, even when we are confronted by terrorism. That means establishing a balance: no one can envisage abandoning the prevention of, and fight against, terrorism, but individuals’ fundamental rights must be preserved.
I agree with Mr Duquesne’s thoughts on the role of Europol and Eurojust. It is important to allow these bodies access to a wide spectrum of information, so that they may effectively carry out the exchange and coordination work which is the role of Europol, as is evident from the organisation’s new remit, received a few days ago by its new director.
The principal of respect for fundamental rights is a subject addressed by Mr Alvaro, and it is a subject on which I myself have spoken many times. The principle of personal data protection must respond to real needs. Personal data cannot be safeguarded if the safeguard does not correspond to established objectives and for a specific period of time, and neither can permission be granted to access those data except to the competent police and investigation authorities that have a right to access them by law. We are preparing a provision in this respect, founded on a legal basis which, in my opinion, is more appropriate than the existing one, and which I outlined on Friday to the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers. I shall be presenting the actual text by the end of this summer.
The final subject that I would like to address quickly is bioterrorism. The rapporteur is aware that the Commission has some powers, but not all. It can take charge of food safety, the trade in medicinal products, coordination between the Member States, civil protection and the funding of research. That is no small thing. It is the responsibility of the Member States, however, to adopt practical measures for effective preventative action and potential reactive action in the event of a terrorist attack. You are aware that, following the 2005 bioterrorist attack using traces of anthrax, a high level committee for public health safety was set up with an effective programme of cooperation for prevention and rapid response. The cooperation in progress is working and we are able to tell you that there is a system that can provide a rapid alert in the event of a biological, chemical or radiological attack, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many steps taken by the Commission will improve the level of preparedness and prevention: we are developing simulation exercises in case of potential bioterrorist attacks, two of which will be performed this year to provide a practical assessment of the standard of prevention and rapid response.
We are drawing up guidelines, moreover, for managing medical diagnoses in the event of agents being spread by bioterrorists; we are preparing training courses in collaboration with Europol, and we are supporting national emergency plans that aim to make available an adequate number of vaccines and emergency assistance. As you are aware, Mr
Kyprianou unveiled an important European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control barely a week ago. We will continue to encourage the Member States on these issues.
There are two final and practical proposals that I would like to point out. Firstly, the drafting of a new European programme on health and consumer protection, under which we aim to increase the level of funding allocated to prevention and rapid response in the event of public health emergencies. We have also proposed the reimbursement of costs for public health emergencies under the Solidarity Fund, up to a sum of EUR 1 billion. Secondly – and this is my final point - I will mention an important initiative that we have identified as a framework programme. It is a programme, planned and approved for the next Community budget, which is focused on preparedness and prevention relating to security. Obviously, this will include funds to be allocated in the event of potential bioterrorist attacks.
I believe that terrorism is genuinely the new tyranny of the 21st century, a tyranny which seeks to limit our freedoms and to attack people’s fundamental rights – the right to life and physical safety – and I therefore agree with your approach. A response is needed that involves European intervention and strong international cooperation. It is not a case of an emergency response: we must regard terrorism as a permanent threat, which therefore requires a strategy and, as many have said, concrete action, above all.
Only last Friday in Luxembourg, the Council, on this basis, endorsed the action plan proposed by the Commission, which contains some new, and in my opinion, effective proposals. These will be implemented as early as in the next few months and will add to the measures already in place. As Mr Mayor Oreja correctly stated, we are dealing with aspects of a single strategy, not a list of measures. It will be a question of a political plan on which Parliament, the Council and the Commission obviously must and can work together.
I believe that one of the fundamental principles resides in the fact that the fight against terrorism does not mean restricting people’s freedoms; quite the opposite! The greatest political mistake would be if people’s fundamental freedoms were also to fall victim to terrorism, in the sense of being sacrificed, or, even, wiped out. The balance between preventative action and repression, on the one hand, and the safeguarding of fundamental rights and freedoms, on the other, is therefore the focus of all of the reports.
If I may now make some brief observations on the reports presented. Mrs Díez González is certainly right in stressing the importance of an available action plan, allowing us in particular to monitor the actions of the Member States in implementing the measures decided upon. It would be truly paradoxical if, after having identified a strategy, there was not a mechanism for overseeing the implementation of the measures outlined in the strategy itself. The action plan and its implementation will therefore be a priority for the Commission. As many of you are already aware, one of the main elements of the action plan approved on Friday in Luxembourg was precisely the creation of a permanent monitoring instrument.
The Commission proposes to issue a report periodically – on a six-monthly basis, I believe. It will, of course, be made public and will concern the methods and the quality of implementation of all of the measures by the Member States. For instance, with regard to certain points outlined in Mrs Díez González’s report, we are working on a communication on explosives, detonators and firearms, and on a second communication that concerns the radicalisation and recruitment of terrorists. In addition to these measures, we will clearly and promptly put forward a number of proposals on the issue of the funding of terrorism – I will return to this issue – with particular reference to certain organisations that assist and support terrorism. We will obviously work towards the implementation of the ARGUS system, with which many of you will be familiar. I am certain that this system will allow us to create a network of all of the existing rapid response systems within the Commission. The aim is to create a European network that will enable the immediate exchange of information – I would say in real time – between all of the Member States in the event of a terrorist attack.
Mr Mayor Oreja’s report very rightly stresses the importance of strengthening information exchange, cooperation with third countries, dialogue with civil society – which is a fundamental aspect – and assistance and support to the victims of terrorism, which is another aspect on which the Commission will work intensely. I believe that this period of work, which Parliament has begun today with the presentation of the reports, will increasingly have to take into account the victims of terrorism, as well as the perpetrators of terrorist acts, of course.
I believe that the key to the success of this strategy lies in the principle of inclusiveness: all of the actors in society, both public and private, must be able to participate in the democratic debate on terrorism. I believe that providing the public with appropriate information, which is neither threatening nor exaggerated, but is in contrast clear, can be a reassuring response. If we tell the citizens that there exist practical measures and that together we are fine-tuning them, I believe that the citizens can feel reassured by the fact that the great institutions of Europe are working, and will continue to work, proactively.
With regard to the protection of critical infrastructures, I greatly welcomed the report by Mr Lambrinidis. Without doubt, one of the principal terrorist threats affects infrastructures, and it is precisely within this sector that cooperation is essential between public institutions, every level of government and the private sector. By the end of the year, the Commission aims to present to Parliament a proposal for a European programme for critical infrastructure protection. One of the items in the programme relates to the possibility of providing access to immediate and well-timed information – a kind of early warning – in the event of the danger of a terrorist attack."@en1
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