Brussels, 08/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - Members of the European Parliament are furious that the Council has adopted, using the written procedure and not consulting Parliament, the European list of international terrorist organisations (see EUROPE of 3 January, p.6). An oral question of the Presidency will be lodged in the plenary session, probably at the beginning of February. EUROPE will return to this tomorrow.
The Public Liberties Committee met to adopt the Watson Reports on two framework decisions on incriminations of terrorism and the setting up of the European arrest warrant. Both were adopted almost unanimously (terrorism: 30 to 1; arrest warrant: 26 to 4), rejecting all the tabled amendments. But the adoption of draft reports that should have been submitted to the plenary at the beginning of February was also controversial. For GUE/NGL, Alain Krivine said that his group would not take part in a "masquerade" of a vote because the decisions had already been taken and the Council would not revise the legislation. Graham Watson was not far behind, noting the procedure requires the EP to give its opinion before the Council can formally adopt the texts.