Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-09-Speech-3-424"
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"en.20080709.37.3-424"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, together with the Member States the European Commission is the world’s foremost institutional player and donor in the fight against the death penalty. Its activities in this regard are at the forefront of its external policies on human rights. The general principles of the European Union’s policy towards third countries concerning the death penalty, adopted in 1998 and reviewed in 2008, set out the criteria for issuing demarches and define the standards that should be used. Abolition of the death penalty is one of the main thematic priorities when providing help within the framework of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. Since 1994 the Commission has financed worldwide approximately 30 projects, the total monetary value of which is roughly EUR 15 million. Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner categorically expressed her opposition to the death penalty, whether actually used in practice or set out in legislation, in a public declaration on 10 October 2007, on the occasion of the World Day Against The Death Penalty, and on other subsequent occasions.
The incident, which is the subject of the letter written by the Member of this House, is known to the Commission. Iraq is one of the countries to which the European Commission often sends demarches on the use of the death penalty. In this particular case, the demarche was sent in June 2007. Both the European Union and the Commission have repeatedly called on the Iraqi Government and the Supreme Court of Iraq to abolish the use of the death penalty and to mitigate all death sentences that have been passed but not yet carried out. Furthermore, they have called on the Iraqi Government to introduce, without delay, a moratorium on all executions. Needless to say, in the case of the bomb attack on the UN headquarters on 19 August 2003, such a moratorium would have made it possible to carry out a detailed cross-examination of all persons who could have provided potential evidence needed to ensure that no perpetrator of this attack goes unpunished. Indeed, the Commission is alarmed by the speed with which this case was dealt with. Our main goal, however, is to advocate the abolition of the death penalty in general. The Commission continues to cooperate closely with the Member States of the European Union in an effort to express our position and dissatisfaction with the Iraqi side."@en1
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