Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-19-Speech-2-188"
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"en.20100119.9.2-188"2
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"I am pleased that this question has been tabled by Baroness Ludford, who spoke just now, Mrs Antonescu, Mrs Romero, Mrs Hautala and Mr Tavares, because we are indeed faced with a matter of overriding magnitude in the shape of procedural guarantees in criminal proceedings. On this subject, I would like to say that we agree on raising the profile of the matter you have brought to our attention and we also agree that it should be harmonised at European level.
In your question, you indicated at the outset that the Swedish Presidency made significant progress. The Swedish Presidency did indeed make important progress in this field. In October, the Council agreed on general guidelines for the text on the right to interpreting and translation in criminal proceedings and one month later, in November, the Council adopted a plan to make progress on further measures regarding procedural guarantees, in response to Baroness Ludford’s call for action. Some of these you mentioned yourself, Baroness Ludford, such as the right to information on a person’s rights – the repetition is intentional – and obligations in any criminal proceedings, on aid, on legal advice, on communication with family members and consular authorities, or on the special guarantees that must be put in place and the protection of vulnerable accused people. That was with regard to the Council during the Swedish Presidency.
At this point you may well say: That is all very well, but is there any agreement with the European Parliament to continue treating this work as a priority? And we can say to you: Yes, it is a priority to continue this approach. How? Through what initiatives?
The first thing that the Spanish Presidency will do is to try, by working with the European Parliament, to ensure the adoption of the Directive on interpreting and translation rights in criminal proceedings proposed by 13 Member States. It was not possible to continue with the proposal tabled by the Commission and 13 Member States have replaced this initiative. We want this initiative to be approved, naturally in cooperation with the European Parliament. Apart from this, we hope that the Commission will put the appropriate initiatives in place for the remaining aspects of procedural guarantees. We are very willing for this to happen as soon as possible so that we can start the process of adopting them, again in conjunction with the Council and Parliament.
I would like to end by telling you that the Spanish Presidency is planning to organise a seminar in Madrid this coming March, together with the Commission and the European Law Academy, on the subject of Common Standards in Procedural Guarantees. This shows, Baroness Ludford, that we agree wholeheartedly with you and those who supported this question on the urgency of regulating these matters, of harmonising them throughout Europe and, naturally, of keeping Parliament informed at all times on how the work is progressing."@en1
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