Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-221"
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"en.20070926.17.3-221"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think anyone in this House can have any doubt that these actions are unlawful. The added value that I see in Mr Fava's report is that it commits everyone, all three institutions, to ensuring that such events never happen again. This urgent entreaty comes across to me from the conclusions of the Fava report and is the political point that I believe needs to be emphasised.
Thus there are two aspects here, I believe. One is strategy, in other words looking to the future and seeing to it that such events never happen again on European territory, and then trusting our judges to investigate the past. As others have said, no one believes that we can replace our judges who, in accordance with the rule of law, have to investigate with all the evidence to hand and with due respect for the presumption of innocence, as Mr Fava has reminded us. The past and the future: these are the two levels requiring attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, Europe and the United States undeniably share a tradition and a constitutional background of guaranteed fundamental rights. I therefore believe that torture, unlawful detention and the seizure of individuals - even if suspected of terrorism - in themselves run counter to our shared transatlantic background of democracy and rights. So the political conclusion I draw is that we need ways of strengthening our Euro-Atlantic links in order to provide more security along with more rights.
It would be quite wrong to point the finger at the United States when, on the contrary, we should be seeking a way to wage a joint war on terror based on respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights. This is the lesson that I personally learn from many of these recommendations.
Then there is the question of how to bolster our sovereignty. This is a serious matter. How can Europe strengthen its own area of sovereignty so as to be a stronger ally, and no longer a weak one, in Euro-Atlantic cooperation? One preliminary example is the reference that I made to the single European airspace. Once we have, as from January 2009, a common rule valid for all 27 Member States on overflight rights, the definition of aeroplanes and powers of control over this single European sky, Europe will have bolstered its sovereignty. Moreover, at that stage the Commission will undoubtedly have coordinating and supervisory powers, because the rules will then no longer be national but European.
Finally, Mr President, this debate gives us one more reason to introduce the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the future constitutional treaty or institutional treaty, whatever it may be called. It is one more reason because that inclusion, that institutional reference to the Charter of rights, will give the EU institutions powers - including that of supervision and of taking action before the Court - in sectors which are absolutely crucial to all of us in our everyday lives."@en1
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