Brussels, 22/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Further to repeated calls concerning parliamentary controls over the freezing of assets of people with links to Al Qaeda, the European Parliament has decided to bring the matter before the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. "It is now up to the Court to decide whether the European Parliament will have co-decision on the controversial black list of suspected terrorists", said rapporteur, Emine Bozkurt (S&D, Netherlands) on Friday 19 March. "Clearly, terrorism must be defeated, but the end does not justify the means. In Europe, we must protect the fundamental rights of our citizens", she added. In her view, the European Commission and the Council of the EU should have used a different legal basis to include suspected terrorists on the blacklist, thus respecting the powers of co-decision of the Parliament. "The Parliament wants to use the rights conferred upon it when the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force", Bozkurt stressed. On 16 December, the MEPs adopted a resolution criticising measures taken by the Commission on the freezing of assets of people with links to Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda network and the Taliban (EUROPE 10042). (B.C./transl.fl)