Strasbourg, 09/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - Next Thursday, the European Parliament will give its stance in plenary on the proposal of regulation made on 6 March this year by the European Commission to adjust measures taken one year ago against "persons and entities" linked to Ossama Bin-laden, given the change in the Afghan regime. The proposal aims to repeal and replace the regulation of 6 March 2001, which had established a freeze on the assets of persons and entities linked to the Taliban, and which bans exports of certain goods and services to Afghanistan. The proposal is founded on the adjustment by the United Nations Security Council, on 16 January, of its own resolutions toward Afghanistan. On Tuesday morning, the plenary recognised how urgent such a vote was, as requested by Ana Palacio Vallelersundi (Partido popular member, Chair of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms), despite the objections of a large part of the left.
We do not know how the list of persons and entities concerned has been changed, and we cannot therefore give an opinion on it, exclaimed Pernille Frahm, Finnish member of the United Left/Nordic Greens Left. Ana Palacio, however, put forward the argument that this is not a matter of giving the Parliament's opinion on this list, but of supporting the Security Council resolution of 16 January, which was signed by the European Union Member States, and which therefore must be supported. At the same time, Ms Palacio was highly critical of the way in which the Parliament is being treated in this affair (her predecessor, the current president of the Liberal Group, Graham Watson, had also voiced criticism of this). Recalling that the European Union takes measures in this context not only under the Community pillar of the Treaty but also under the CFSP pillar, Ana Palacio pointed out that the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms, which met on Monday evening in Strasbourg, had been unanimous in calling for the Parliament to be at least informed in time on this tricky issue. In addition, she said, the parliamentary committee will call on the EU Council and on European members of the Security Council to envisage the introduction of a mechanism allowing for the list to be corrected, in order to be able to withdraw the persons or entities whose presence would not finally be justified. (See EUROPE of 21 February, p.13, and 6 April, p.16, on the subject of referral to the EU Court of Justice by three Swedish citizens following a freeze on their assets, because they were accused of having connections with the Taliban).