Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-10-09-Speech-3-518-000"
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"en.20131009.43.3-518-000"2
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"Mr President, this resolution does two things: it repeats our decade-long criticism of the US-led extraordinary rendition programme of kidnapping, secret and illegal imprisonment and torture, and European countries’ complicity in that programme. It was in fact ten years ago last month that I organised the first hearing in the European Parliament on Guantánamo
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I will come back to the defective legal thinking which underpinned the wrong path that the US and the European allies took. But just for a moment I want to focus on the second thing the resolution does, which is to demand accountability at national level, including my country the UK, and to call for the EU institutions – the Commission and Council – to assist in that process by monitoring and supporting national accountability exercises.
No, Minister – if I may say so to the Lithuanian Presidency – this does not fall outside the remit of the EU or the Council. Why else do we have human rights clauses in EU Treaties or the Charter? What is the point of declarations that counter-terrorism operations must respect human rights and humanitarian law, when you will not follow up – nationally or at European level – on a huge body of evidence? It is almost time to drop the ‘alleged’ because there is so much evidence that these laws have been breached – our own and international laws.
Getting back to the international legal framework, the fact is that, with its war on terror, the US has tried to subvert these long-standing international norms. Under President Obama, the terminology has shifted from ‘war on terror’ just to ‘war’. The fact is that the US still asserts an exclusive right to define the war and to make up its rules. It is under the global war paradigm that the US last weekend snatched Abu Anas al-Libi off the streets of Tripoli. It is under the same pretext that drone strikes are used for so-called targeted killings. Indeed, Guantánamo is still open, and contains people who have never been charged, let alone tried.
Even if EU institutions will not help call Member States to account for torture and disappearances, they should take the lead in asserting the true nature and proper application of international law. As Vice-Chair of Parliament’s Delegation for relations with the United States I want the best for America. When your best friend goes off the rails you try to pull them back on, not push them further off. MEPs are trying to do that; the Commission and Council are not."@en1
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"plus ça change"1
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