Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-20-Speech-3-166"
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"en.20100120.14.3-166"2
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"Mr President, this is a serious law-making process that we are beginning now with the Treaty of Lisbon.
Mr López Garrido, if you are telling us that translations or the lack of translations in such a sensitive area is causing delays that we will just have to accept, then, with the greatest respect, I have to say that that is merely an excuse intended to protect yourself and pacify us here a little. However, we cannot take that seriously. I will simply take note of it now and then overlook it.
The essence of the matter is something else entirely: the lack of involvement of the European Parliament. In the case of international agreements of such far-reaching importance, that is simply impermissible. We want Parliament to be genuinely involved from day one in the implementation of this agreement. Why is that? Mr Buzek, the President of this House, worded it very precisely in his letter, saying that the SWIFT agreement provides for far-reaching infringements of citizens’ fundamental freedoms, which are constitutionally guaranteed in most Member States and are also guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
However, if there are to be executive measures on the basis of such an agreement that provide for infringements of citizens’ fundamental freedoms, the legal protection of citizens against such infringements must be absolutely guaranteed. That means that data protection must be guaranteed in every respect, the deletion of data after a certain, reasonable period must be guaranteed and appeal facilities must be precisely set out for citizens in the event of the violation of their fundamental rights. One of the constituent elements of the principle of the rule of law is that citizens are able to protect themselves against arbitrary treatment on the part of the State.
The European Union cannot invalidate this legal tradition, which is enshrined in the systems of 27 States, by referring to unavailable translations. If we are serious about wanting to develop the rule of law at European level, we must also transfer to the European level the model of the necessity of intervention on the grounds of security but also the legitimate protection of citizens.
The Council must therefore explain to us where the added value of the SWIFT agreement is if it is now – as the Council desires – provisionally to enter into force. I am not going to talk about the data breaches from the numerous security services in the United States. Someone stuffs some explosives into their underwear and flies over the Atlantic. That is what the intensive security work carried out by the American secret services has so far achieved. That cannot be what it is dependent on, though.
I am wondering why we have to apply this fast-tracked procedure when there has been an agreement in place between the EU and the United States since 1 February on provisional legal assistance, Article 4 of which describes precisely how bank data is to be passed on where there are justified grounds for suspicion. This means that the entry into force of the SWIFT agreement would not provide any added value in terms of protection.
Therefore, this undue haste, – or a ‘pig’s gallop’, as we would call it in German – this pressure to speed things up, is incomprehensible and so our unanimous request to the Council must be put very precisely: send us the relevant documents! We will debate this matter and conclude the parliamentary procedure with the necessary speed because we want security, but not only for the security bodies; we want security for the citizens who are supposed to be protected by these security bodies, too. I believe that is the purpose of this agreement, but in that case, we also want it to be enacted as an appropriate law."@en1
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