Strasbourg, 02/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted its resolution on the results of the European Council in Brussels on 25 and 26 March, noting with satisfaction the Summit's commitment to reach agreement on the Constitutional Treaty no later than its meeting of 17 and 18 June, whilst believing that it would be preferable for such an agreement to be reached before the European elections, if possible. The Parliament "calls upon the Council to decide whether the formal ceremony of signing the future Constitutional Treaty will take place in Madrid, symbolically, to aver that the most effective response to terrorism and the message of fear and barbarism that it carries lies in the strength of the European institutions and the development of a process of free and democratic participation of citizens" (197 in favour, 173 against and 15 abstentions): see yesterday's EUROPE, p.3.
On terrorism, the Parliament expressed regrets that five Member States have failed to respect the deadline for the implementation of the European arrest warrant, and called upon them to do so as soon as possible. It stated that the post of anti-terrorist co-ordinator should be part of "administrative staff common to Council, Commission and Member States, when the Constitution enters into force, and will thus be subject to the Parliamentary and legal control of the EU". It regretted the fact that the roles of Europol and Eurojust have been underestimated until now, and called for their involvement in the collection of strategic information and the co-ordination of cross-border inquiries to be stepped up. It also criticised the "intolerable absence" of progress in Member States and "their constant inability to bring pressure to bear on the US" to question or free the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The EP called upon the Council to step up dialogue, co-operation and links between Europe and the Muslim Arab world to consolidate moderate political forces and civil society in these countries.
Parliament reaffirmed its support for the Lisbon strategy. It stressed that setting up a high level group to meet the halfway deadlines of the strategy will not replace political action on the part of the Member States. It also called upon all Member States to bring their research expenditure to 3% of GDP by 2010.
On the situation in the Middle East, the Parliament once again condemned the illegal executions committed by Israel. It called upon the Council to ask the Member States of the European Union which belong to the United Nations Security Council to table an immediate proposal to create an international peacekeeping force for the 1967 borders with a mandate to protect the Israeli and Palestinian people from terrorist attacks and military incursions and interventions (191 in favour, 183 against and 14 abstentions).
EUROPE will publish the entire text of this resolution in its EUROPE/Documents series.