Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-078"
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"en.20080923.4.2-078"2
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Mr President, I would first like to congratulate the European Parliament as a whole on the high standard of this debate. The European Parliament is indeed legitimately awaiting the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, but it has demonstrated maturity this morning by producing a very large majority in support of your two reports – the report by Mrs Lefrançois and the report by Mrs Roure. These two reports seek to find the right balance between collective protection against terrorism, which we need to guarantee for our citizens, and individual protection of our freedoms. I believe it is there, in this dual balance, that we have to seek the right solutions.
Mr President, I will very briefly sum up the discussion. I will first go back to the report by Mrs Lefrançois on combating terrorism. I would just like to say that although freedom of expression, including the right of criticism, is one of the fundamental pillars on which the European Union is built, incitement to racial hatred cannot be considered acceptable under the pretext of freedom of expression. Racist discourse is an abuse of freedom of expression and cannot be tolerated.
Next, I would like to remind you that the Commission’s proposal was drawn up on the basis of an in-depth impact assessment. Many consultations were held, and the Commission’s proposal is indeed based on the Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of Terrorism and we have tried to follow the balanced formulation of offences in the Convention.
If Mrs Lefrançois and the many MEPs who have come out in support of the term ‘incitement’ will allow me, I would like just like to spend a couple of minutes defending the term ‘provocation’. The advantage of the term ‘provocation’ is that it is new. That is why the Council of Europe used it; its newness means it can have a common and precise definition in the European Union. Provocation is not a concept open to interpretation. I believe it can be properly identified through case law. What is correct is that we want to avoid any kind of terrorist attack actually occurring while criminalising those who, mainly through what they have said, have called for such an attack even if one did not take place, and that is where the problem lies. I will leave it to the wisdom of the dialogue between the Council and Parliament, however, to find a solution.
I would also like to say that Article 1(2) of the current text of the framework decision contains a human rights safeguard clause that concerns – I think Mrs Lefrançois agrees – the whole framework decision.
Lastly, Mr President, I would like to emphasise the value of placing this action to combat terrorism within the integrated institutional framework of the European Union. By inserting this text into European law, we have a guarantee of its efficacy. For specific acts, it will give us a uniform legal framework regarding the nature and level of criminal sanctions and jurisdictional rules. Consequently, it will be possible to apply the European Union’s cooperation mechanisms referred to in the 2002 framework decision.
To sum up, Mr President, while thanking the rapporteur and Parliament again for all the work they have done over the last two years on this important matter, I would like to hope that a decision will now be taken quickly in view of all the work done and the need – as many of you have underlined – to effectively combat terrorism.
Now I come to the second text, which is inseparable from the first, and I think it was a good idea of Parliament to link them together, demanding data protection and protection of personal freedom at the same time. My thanks, of course, go to Mrs Roure, who has defended this balance, and data protection, so energetically. It was indeed important for this text to come at the same time as the text on combating terrorism, so that the forces of law and order could have specific rules on data protection in the near future. As I have said, and I do not want to overstate this, like Parliament, the Commission obviously wanted to go further on data protection. The Minister, Mr Jouyet, mentioned that the French Presidency had to take account of whether a compromise could be achieved, although it wanted the same thing. I can simply say, then, that the Commission will try to put the evaluation clause and ‘whereas 6a’ to good use. We are therefore listening to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and will try to take account of your desire for an ambitious revision of the framework decision to evaluate the extension of its scope. In any case, that is what the Commission can do and what I personally will try to do. I know the European Parliament would like this revision to take place quite soon. I only hope the Council will agree to a revision within a timescale that enables the European measure to be sorted out very soon.
That is all I wanted to say, Mr President. I would also like to make clear to each of the speakers that I appreciated the high standard of the debate on such an important matter – a matter in which Europe must set an example – both by guaranteeing effective collective protection against terrorist threats and also, of course, by remaining very attentive to the protection of individual freedoms and personal autonomy. I think Parliament has once again clearly demonstrated its maturity and its ability in future to be co-decision maker on this matter."@en1
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