Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-018"
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"en.20080923.4.2-018"2
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".
Mr President, I am convinced that the Council genuinely wishes to improve the security of citizens and also that it sets store by civil rights. You may well welcome the present reports with enthusiasm, but if you have read them carefully you will have noticed that the conclusion we draw is totally different from your own. As a matter of fact, we believe that the proposals you have adopted are simply inadequate, and that they threaten to infringe civil rights.
How come we assess things differently? First of all, parliaments traditionally pay more attention than governments to civil rights, which constitutes a problem when it comes to decision-making. In particular, however, Parliament wants to look at the impact of these decisions on society in the longer term. Viewing the relationship between government and citizens from a historical perspective, we see that the government has the monopoly on the use of force, and citizens have fundamental rights that cannot be violated by the government unless this is necessary, effective and proportionate. Yet if too often citizens see government action that is neither necessary nor justified, their trust in and therefore cooperation with that government will wane, and then we shall really have a massive security problem in the long term. Trust is hard to gain but easy to lose.
In my opinion, the proposal on data protection fails to offer the intended protection, and the Council is on thin ice with its extension of the framework decision.
Starting with the report by Mrs Roure, I should like to thank the rapporteur most warmly for all the years she has spent steering this report through Parliament. In particular, I should like to put a series of questions to the Council. The proposal relates to police and judicial cooperation in Europe; that is, to services concerned with security. However – and the President-in-Office may be able to contradict me here – I understand that it is now specified that the Council does not consider itself bound by these proposals if essential national security interests are at stake. What interests are we talking about here, and can you give an example of a matter that would induce you to simply throw this framework decision in the bin?
Another point, which Mrs Roure herself has already broached, is that of sensitive data. There are some data I can understand the Council wanting; but can it explain to me on what kind of occasion it would stand to benefit from knowing whether a person was a trade-union member? I should like you to give me an example of when it would be useful to know whether a person was a member of the Trade Union Federation (FNV) in the Netherlands. Is this supposed to indicate recalcitrant behaviour? Under what circumstances would this be relevant, for goodness’ sake? People’s sex lives? If we are talking about active paedophilia, fair enough: this is a crime and can of course be recorded. For what kind of things do you actually want more information, however?
Regarding the transfer of data to third countries, I can still recall a hilarious moment during the German Presidency when a representative of the Council stated that it was sometimes indeed necessary to transfer data very quickly to Iran. He had the whole House gaping; surely he could not mean that – transferring data to Iran! I put the question now, therefore, whether that Council member will guarantee that sensitive data will not under any circumstances be transferred to Iran. Could you perhaps also give me the article number on which you base that guarantee?
Although I consider the level of protection insufficient, I do welcome the objective: better cooperation between police and judicial services at European level (this has been known to malfunction even at national level). One key word when it comes to improving this cooperation is ‘trust’ – here, too, it is a matter of trust. My accusation is that the Council is failing to work hard enough to increase this trust and thus also cooperation. After all, trust needs to be based on something, such as substantial data protection or rights of suspects that befit our rule of law – but you fail to deliver the goods. You have now been working on the procedural rights of suspects for my whole term of office and still nothing has emerged. In addition, where you could really help move cooperation forward, you fail to do so. Instead, you present the crude Framework Decision on combating terrorism.
Mrs Lefrançois has produced an apt report on this, for which I should like to express my warm thanks to her, too. My question remains: what problem is the Council actually trying to solve here? Incitement to violence is banned in all Member States, and that is the way it should be – but now provocation, too, is being criminalised. What constitutes ‘provocation’? Someone writing that the United States is a rogue state, an axis of evil that must be combated? If that person also writes: ‘those who are not for us are against us’, is that provocation? If a Western man deliberately makes an anti-Islamic film with the aim of offending people, is he provoking an attack? Am I myself being provocative now?
Unclear legislation is bad legislation. You have my support for criminalising incitement to violence at European level too, but not by this means. If one compares all the language versions, it is not even clear whether it is ‘provocation’ or ‘incitement’ that is being discussed. A woman may dress provocatively, but that does not mean she is inciting rape. Article 1(1) is alarming in that respect, as it states that a person can be convicted of terrorist offences whether or not he or she directly advocates such offences. As far as my group is concerned, that is really going much too far."@en1
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