Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-117"
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"en.20051214.14.3-117"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start with two prefatory remarks. The first is that the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats regards itself as a partner and friend of the United States of America. Far from this debate, or any other on this subject, being a fit and proper occasion for anti-American sentiments, what we have to do is consider the facts in the light of our principles.
Secondly, the fight against terrorism is one of the greatest challenges of present times. To the terrorists, who want to spread fear and fright, to intimidate, we respond by refusing to be intimidated, and by waging war on terrorism with all the forcefulness and determination we can muster.
There can be no compromises with terrorists, any more than there can be compromises when human dignity, human rights and the upholding of the law are at stake. Our system of values, the values in which we share, must not take second place to legal and political opportunism. The principles that underpin our democratic system of values must never be abandoned, for it is they that distinguish us from terrorists. If we were to adopt the terrorists’ methods by trampling the law underfoot, they would be the winners. The fight against terrorism must be fought by legal means and in accordance with the principles of human dignity and human rights.
What that means is that, if a person is suspected of terrorism, the proof that he or she is one can be obtained only by him or her being subject to the due process of law. Kidnapping, abduction, unlawful detention and torture are things we must never permit. No state on earth – neither the European Parliament nor the European Union, neither the Member States of the European Union nor those of the Council of Europe – can permit such things.
Let me quote what was said in a major German newspaper yesterday by the rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty; he said that the information available to him thus far reinforces the impression that members of the public are unlawfully transported to European countries and held there for periods of time. Mr Marty’s very words are that ‘It has to be noted that the charges have never formally been contested by the United States.’ Much as we welcome the US Secretary of State’s statement that the USA would not tolerate torture, that is not proof that people have not been abducted, and that is why we demand information and transparency. We see it as crucial that the truth be put before us.
I might add that this is the line we have always taken. We have always taken a critical view of Guantanamo, and did so even before the US Supreme Court handed down its ruling. I can speak for this House when I say that we can take pride in our defence of human rights, in Guantanamo as elsewhere, and in the fact that the Supreme Court can be said to have come to the same conclusion.
What is now needed is for what really happened to be brought to light and it has to be said that, whatever our criticisms of secret services, we do need them, and that includes the American one, the CIA, for we know that they, and the CIA, are of assistance to us. In a situation like the present one, in which a German woman has been abducted in Iraq, we need the secret services’ back-up, but let me say, most definitely and most firmly, that secret services, too, must be founded upon the law. Human dignity and human rights are worth more to us than anything else; we must speak out wherever they are violated, and where it is unclear whether they have been, we must set investigations in motion. That is why our group advocates close cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and also, if need be, the setting-up of a Temporary Committee to help defend human rights and human dignity."@en1
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