Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-05-Speech-3-165"
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"en.20060705.17.3-165"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as the Council has been asked for an opinion on this matter, I am happy to take part in this debate on its behalf.
Right at the start, I would like to say that the subject of this interim report is an extremely important one, and I consider that the initiative taken regarding this issue by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly is very important and significant.
The issue is the implementation of fundamental rights in Europe and action against terrorism. These must not be allowed to come into conflict with one another. All action taken against terrorism must be in compliance with obligations under international law, and no compromises on these, where it concerns human rights, refugee or humanitarian issues, can be accepted in the name of action against terrorism.
With reference to the interim report under discussion, I would nevertheless like to emphasise that the Treaties do not bestow competence on the European Union in such matters as these, and national intelligence is not within the scope of application of the Treaty, because the Member States have unanimously decided to reserve the task of monitoring the work of national intelligence services for themselves.
This obviously does not mean that the Council has adopted a passive stance regarding the matters raised in the report. Since last November it has been suspected publicly that the US Central Intelligence Agency was using flights to transport prisoners and illegal detention facilities in Europe. On 21 November the European Union Foreign Affairs Ministers discussed this information at a session of the General Affairs and External Affairs Council. As a result of this discussion, on 29 November 2005, the Foreign Affairs Minister for the country to hold the Presidency at the time, Jack Straw, wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the European Union’s behalf, trying to discover the US Government’s views regarding these allegations. On 5 December the US Secretary of State made a detailed statement on the matter, prior to her European visit, according to which the United States considered that international agreements were binding on its own actions and that the United States respected other countries’ sovereignty and that it did not transport detained persons to countries where they would be tortured, under interrogation or otherwise. The European Union Foreign Affairs Ministers and Secretary of State Rice discussed the matter again later on during the latter’s visit to Brussels.
Since early this year there has been intensive dialogue with the United States at various levels and in different assemblies regarding these matters. Human rights have been discussed on many an occasion with the United States. There have also been discussions on the need for compliance with international law in the fight against terrorism. This was most recently on the agenda at the US-EU Summit in Vienna on 21 June.
The European Union has repeatedly asked the US Government to allow United Nations human rights reporters full access to Guantanamo Bay. EU Foreign Affairs Ministers have stated that the European Union is still seriously concerned about Guantanamo Bay, and the topic has been discussed with the United States on more than one occasion. It is the opinion of the EU that the US Government should take steps to close Guantanamo down as soon as possible. Accordingly, the Union welcomed the remark made by President Bush at the Vienna Summit that he was willing to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
As the country to hold the Presidency of the Council, Finland will naturally continue to keep alive the debate on human rights in dialogue with the United States. That will be very important during our Presidency."@en1
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