Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-14-Speech-2-227"
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"en.20060314.25.2-227"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, honourable Members of the European Parliament, in my concluding statement, I would like to reiterate in quite general terms that we, despite the thoroughly justified criticisms that you have made of various points today, can take it as read that the European Arrest Warrant is certainly something of which we can all be proud. The fact is that it was a first and vital step towards our jointly combating crime and terrorism on the basis of the mutual recognition principle. That is something very important, and it is something of which we must never lose sight.
Mr Varvitsiotis asked why we do not take as a basis a three-year prison sentence rather than the 32 offences on the list, and I am able to say, in response to that, that – as I am sure you are aware – these 32 offences were the subject of long and in-depth discussion in the Council before we were able to agree on them. That was a very difficult process, and we are now glad that we have the list. What must not be forgotten when considering these 32 offences is that what is laid down by means of this list is that these are the areas in which, in practice, double criminality is not subject to extra scrutiny. That is the background to the list of 32 offences. Extradition and the application of the European Arrest Warrant continue, nevertheless, to be options in other areas in which only double criminality is checked in order for the European Arrest Warrant to come into play.
As I have already said, these 32 offences are again a subject for discussion in relation to the European evidence warrant, for we do of course know that some of these offences are very broadly defined, while others relate to very specific acts. When seen in today’s light, this is not really coherent, and we are well aware of this. Even so, we are glad that it is in place, and, on the basis of the experience gained with the European arrest warrant, we will of course continue to work on this list. I would ask you to give us time; we need time if we are eventually going to have a good basis for even better cooperation in this area.
Several Members have asked me to say something about the minimum procedural safeguards in criminal trials, and I think this is a very important point. Mr Watson, Mrs Buitenweg, Mr Catania, Mr Lambrinidis, Mrs Ludford and Mrs Kaufmann have raised the issue. I am sure that you are aware that we spent a lot of time discussing this whole area during the informal Council meeting in Vienna on 13 and 14 January.
I am also sure that you are aware that this framework decision – and I do not hesitate to say what I am about to say – is, at the moment, in a sort of dead-end, and this is something that all of us in the Council very much regret. I can assure you that we in the Council most certainly do have the political will to put these minimum procedural guarantees for the accused in criminal cases in the form of a regulation of one kind or other. We want thereby to send out a very important political message.
There are also problems with the framework decision itself, for some Member States have doubts about the legal basis for the adoption of a legal instrument at European level, and that, as I am sure you can imagine, is an issue that it is rather difficult to evade. A look at the details reveals that these doubts have to do, in particular, with the scope and similar points, which we are discussing, but I can assure you, on behalf of the Austrian Presidency, that we regard this as a high-priority matter and that we do want to achieve real progress on it during our presidency.
We must also, however, bear in mind the fact that the minimum procedural guarantees are one point on which we have to add value to the Human Rights Convention, more specifically to its Article 6, for that Article 6 is our common foundation in Europe, and something to which we all feel committed.
In the course of our presidency, then, we will attempt to reach a solution to this in order to take the next step, which really is essential. What is most important to us is that we should be able to move on out of the cul-de-sac in which we currently find ourselves.
Mrs Roure raised another important issue, that of what progress we have achieved with the other instruments, essentially the European evidence procedure and the exchange of information between judicial authorities. What I can tell you about evidence procedures is that quite considerable progress has been made on this at Council level. It goes without saying that the list of 32 offences – to which this debate has returned again and again – is back on our agenda. I will discuss the question later on.
That too is an item for debate, but I am full of hope that on this too we will make a great deal of progress during our presidency. We may well manage to bring this matter to a conclusion, but, even if that proves impossible, we will be able to hand over to the Finnish Presidency a dossier which is very close to completion.
If I may turn to the framework decision on the implementation and content of the exchange of information from criminal records between the Member States and the framework decision on the protection of personal data processed in the course of police and judicial cooperation, I can tell you that we are discussing this in working parties, and, here too, we believe that we will be able to move forward."@en1
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