Strasbourg, 30/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - Answering the serious concern expressed by MEPs after the European Commission changed the direction of its policy for financing measures against torture, Commissioner Michel Barnier told the European Parliament on Thursday in Strasbourg that his institution did "not intend to abolish all financing allocated to rehabilitation centres overnight". The call for proposals amounting to EUR 11.5 million launched on 9 August 2003, a call which targeted rehabilitation centres within the European Union, "is the proof and evidence of this, I believe", the Commissioner said.
Mr Barnier recalled that the EP played a major role in 1994 for allocating funds from the European Union budget to victims of torture and said that he was well aware of the "serious concern raised within your Assembly by the decision to cut back funding for torture victim rehabilitation centres". He also recalled that, in 2001, the Commission presented a communication on human rights, marked by a change in direction regarding rehabilitation and prevention, as well as the commitment to "ensure that its efforts as far as possible cover prevention mainly by giving the police and other potential torturers a training in human rights". The programming document of the European initiative for 2002-2004, which stresses that funding will be geared to longer term prevention actions, comes within this reasoning, Mr Barnier recognised. He specified that the Commission is currently completing the drafting of programming for the European initiative 2004, which will give priority to torture prevention and rehabilitation.
Emphasis placed on prevention "does not mean that the Commission does not place any value on measures for the rehabilitation of victims, quite the contrary", Mr Barnier assured. He nonetheless pointed out that, as the funds allocated to the European initiative are limited to around EUR 100 million annually for financing four key priorities in the defence of human rights, "the Commission was forced to take rigorous and therefore difficult choices". The other Commission arguments are that: - the 2001 communication clearly indicates the general principle of the limited budget for the European initiative is to focus on civil and political rights. It presents the EU as a driving force for change in the field of human rights; - as far as the fight against torture is concerned, the principle is to tackle the problems at the source, mainly through the training of police forces and prison surveillance staff, through research into networks for marketing instruments of torture, through awareness measures and support provided to the major moves forward, such as the optional protocol to the Convention against torture.
Mr Barnier said this means taking the measures necessary for saving the victims of tomorrow. He added that the decision to increasingly redirect Union action toward prevention is accompanied by specific measures aimed at gradually reducing the dependence of rehabilitation centres on Community resources. The Commission cited: - calls for proposals which, since 2001, attach great importance to the issue of timelessness of projects during the assessment process; - actions aimed at strengthening the capacities of centres, which were explicitly eligible for financing in 2001 and 2002.
Also, Mr Barnier specified that this approach must be replaced in the context of the vast network of rehabilitation centres existing today: - the international council for rehabilitation of torture victims itself works with some 200 centres worldwide and "it is obvious that the Commission does not have the necessary resources to cover such needs and cannot give its support to only a limited number of centres each year". Thus, last year, "thirteen projects set up within and outside the Union and intended for torture victims were provided with Community funding and this aid comes in addition to other major sources of financing at international level, for example, that from the voluntary contribution fund for torture victims, set in place by the United Nations and to which several Member States contribute".
At the beginning of his speech, Mr Barnier said that, through the action it has undertaken over recent years at political, diplomatic and financial level, "the European Union has clearly shown its commitment in favour of combating torture in the world". Mr Barnier also specified that: - the Council working group on human rights is currently, in order to strengthen the European Union's action in a certain number of third countries, developing a strategy to more effectively implement guidelines relating to torture set out by the Union in 2001, and that it is analysing the information which concerns cases of torture communicated by the heads of European Union missions throughout the world; - large funds are allocated to non-governmental organisations and to international organisations, through the European initiative for democracy and human rights, for torture prevention and the rehabilitation of torture victims. Thus, last year, EUR 25 million were allocated to projects of this kind in the context of a call for proposals for 2002 and 2003.
Echoing the views expressed by Karin Juncker (SPD) and Anna Karamanou (PES, Greece), Mr Barnier welcomed the acquittal of Amina Lawal in Nigeria. "This acquittal was wanted by all those who, in the world and in Europe, as well as at the Commission (President Prodi had mainly written to the Nigerian authorities on this subject) are attached to human rights". He went on to say that, when one speaks of respect of human rights, at the heart of the combat for respect of human rights lies the abolition of the death penalty. We have all abolished it in Europe, which is unfortunately not the case in the other regions of the world.
During the debate, the German Christian Democrat Bernd Posselt (CSU) recalled the serious situation in Chechnya (he mentioned the acts of torture committed by the Russian Army) and said that "Turkey finds it hard to put such practices behind it". Generally speaking, he welcomed the Commission's strategy in this connection.
German Social Democrat Karin Juncker said "the world expects the EU to go further", mainly regarding the rehabilitation centres and the re-education of torture victims. Speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group, Belgian national Nelly Maes firmly denounced the method consisting of using rape "as a weapon". She also spoke of the harsh reality of child soldiers who are forced to kill their own parents.
In response to a question put by Ms Maers on the problem of rehabilitation/prevention, Mr Barnier said the European initiative does not make a clear distinction between prevention and rehabilitation and does not challenge the fact that rehabilitation centres may and must play a role in the field of prevention. He recalled, moreover, that the call for proposals in 2002 expressly authorised the centres to devote 20% of their budget proposal to activities linked to torture prevention. In order to fuel our reflection on this subject, the Commissioner said, "we shall soon begin a study on the role of centres in this field".
Debate slides off track after speech by Spanish MEP
The Basque elected member of Euskal Herritarrok, Koldo Gorostiaga Atxalandabaso felt the real test in this context would be putting an end to torture in one Member State, the Kingdom of Spain. Carlos Lage (PES, Portugal), the next to take the floor, reacted strongly saying: "I can be but indignant at what I have just heard and the best interpretation that I could give to the words of the deputy is that the subject treated was a tribute paid by vice to virtue, but at the end of the day it is not that". He remarked that the previous speaker had not condemned the torture, had not condemned the violence that the organisation he defends practices in Spain, an organisation that "takes people hostage, oppresses them and treats them like objects". Mr Lage added that Spain would be condemned if such acts of torture existed against the members of the organisation. He specified that measures have already been taken in this Member State against the police, which tortured members of the organisation concerned.
The chair of the session, Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (EPP_ED, Spain) was unable to restrain his emotion after the remarks by the deputy "who did not condemn the attacks …". He reminded the person in question that he belonged to an organisation that the democratic rule of law, through justice, has dissolved because of its links with a terrorist organisation. "I shall not say more and I assume full responsibility for my words as a Spanish member of the House", the president concluded calling on his Spanish colleagues to not take the floor "as we are in a debate of another kind ".