Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-024"
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"en.20080923.4.2-024"2
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"Mr President, Commission Vice-President, President-in-Office of the Council, a word of praise first of all to the French Council Presidency for the fact that we are discussing these subjects together, as they illustrate the balance of the challenge: overcoming a major challenge – terrorism – on the one hand, and data protection on the other. It is a shame that the President-in-Office cannot be present for the whole time. That would have been very useful for this debate.
Firstly, with regard to data protection, we have already heard many Presidencies here tell us of major and significant progress. On behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, I should like to note that our rapporteur, Mrs Roure, has the full support of the entire Parliament on this issue, as we need progress here.
Three items are of particular importance to us. I should like to emphasise specifically that we must continue to emphasise that we support the exchange of data. We know from the Schengen Information System that we can trace many criminals by exchanging data, and that exchanging data ensures success and also guarantees security. Other aspects are important, however: the right of access for citizens is particularly important to me – strengthening citizens’ rights – and the scope, which has already been discussed repeatedly. Vice-President Barrot has pointed out that it is important to him to have these decisions as backing, particularly during the negotiations with the United States. I should like to add, however, that if the United States objects that this legal framework unfortunately applies only to European issues, and not at intra-European level in connection with the situation in the Member States, it will have an argument against us, as we do not even dare to implement this legal framework in full in the European Union.
With regard to the fight against terrorism, I think it is a shame that, although the Council is continually launching new approaches here, it is getting nowhere in the practical implementation of many operational measures. We all remember that it took over a year to appoint a new EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Mr de Kerchove, that we acted quickly on data retention but have unfortunately seen delays in implementation, and that within Europol we still do not have a task force, a dedicated department, for this sector. We must work and fight with greater commitment in this regard, and we should be making operational progress rather than just arguing over wording.
Particularly with regard to Islamic terrorism, we are experiencing the greatest problems with converts – people who grow up in our society, become adults and then convert to the Islamic faith. We have to ask ourselves here what is going wrong in our societies and what is going wrong in the Islamic environment for these people to become radicalised. We have to consider this.
In Europe we are able to live in safety also because we have a committed police force, who are to be thanked at this point."@en1
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