Strasbourg, 29/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - By a large majority on Thursday, the European Parliament approved two reports on issues on which it was simply consulted (since they were Justice/Home Affairs matters) and which had been very much hurried through the EU Council over the last few months - the reports by the British Liberal Democrat Graham Watson (President of the Liberties Committee) on the draft framework decisions on combating terrorism and the European arrest warrant; and by German Social Democrat Evelyne Gebhardt (on the initiative of Portugal, France, Sweden and Belgium) on the creation of Eurojust to strengthen the fight against serious organise crime. The plenary:
During the debate, Graham Watson referred (without mentioning it directly) to Italy which might block the European arrest warrant and recommended making use (in extremis) of an instrument he himself does not like very much - strengthened co-operation. On the delicate issue of the relation between terrorism and political action, he acknowledged that terrorism sometimes gave vent to political grievances that require a political response.
European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said that they wanted to have another go at negotiating to try and reach unanimous agreement and if that proved impossible, they would consider what could be done. He hammered home that at this stage, the direction to be followed is to seek unanimous agreement on the European arrest warrant, and "substantial" agreement at that, adding that what was required was an arrest warrant that was effective and easy to use. The President of the Council, Annemie Neyts, congratulated Parliament on its rapid and flexible work over the past few weeks on these vital issues. She argued that all indications suggested that the Council would be able to respect the deadlines it had set itself for Eurojust, which she felt should provide "genuine value-added" and avoid repeating action taken elsewhere. On the "extremely complicated" instrument of the framework decision on the European arrest warrant, she noted that debate was continuing, focussing on the issue of double jeopardy - at the Council, she noted, there was virtual agreement on the adoption of a "positive list", but in order to reach unanimous agreement, she expected the list would need to be "adjusted".
Eurojust is the key we need to create a European justice area, argued the rapporteur Evelyne Gebhardt, highlighting the end for Eurojust's work to not be hampered by excessive or unnecessary bureaucracy, noting that Parliament had called for Eurojust to be set up back in the spring. Several MEPs speaking in the debate highlighted the importance of preserving human rights and the rights of the defence when fighting crime and terrorism. This point was made by the British Liberal Sarah Ludford, French Green Alima Boumediène-Thiery and Italian United Left MEP Giuseppe Di Lello, who saw the 11 September events as an excuse for passing laws that squashed civil liberties. The Spanish Partido Popular MEP Gerard Galeote Quecedo hoped that the European list of terrorist organisations would be published as soon as possible. For Roberta Angelilli (Alleanza Nationale, Italy), the priority was to list the crimes covered by the European arrest warrant. She felt that around 30 different crimes should be listed (far more than the Italian government is calling for (and which the Alleanza Nationale is a member of).