Strasbourg, 10/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - With the McCartney sisters attending the European Parliament on Monday, the debate on the death of the sisters' brother, Robert, killed in the street in Belfast, took an emotional tone. No-one has been charged with the murder committed four months ago, despite the numerous witnesses implicating the Provisional IRA. Many parliamentarians from Ireland and Northern Ireland spoke in the debate and denounced the people behind the murder and those who carried it out. They referred to the witnesses who, intimidated by the IRA, remain silent. Many MEPs, such as Gary Titley (British Labour Party) stated that Sinn Fein had to fully assume its responsibility and force the IRA to help bring about justice. Irish MEP Marian Harkin (ALDE) hammered home the fact that she thought the IRA had no reason to continue existing. Sinn Fein MEP, Bairbre de Brun, speaking in English and Irish, said that her party supported the McCartney family (member of the GUE/NGL) and would continue to do so. The Northern Ireland MEP pointed out that the appeals of the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams for the truth but admitted that in the McCartney affair, justice had not come about. A few MEPs deplored the political turn the debate had assumed and said that they should have limited themselves to examining how to help the McCartney sisters in their fight for truth and justice. Helmuth Markov was an example of this (GUE/NGL), who, while appealing for murder witnesses to come forward, regretted that other political groups had chosen to “concentrate on the political situation in Northern Ireland”. The PDS MEP said that the GUE/NGL group entirely supported a discussion at the European Parliament on the situation but that “this resolution is not the way to do it”. James Nicholson MEP (Ulster Unionist Party, replied that if Mr Markov lived in Northern Ireland, he would not hold such ideas. Austrian Social Democrat, Hannes Swoboda, said that this criminal act was not “an Irish problem” it affected all of Europe. Commissioner Stavros Dimas simply expressed the solidarity and admiration of the European Commission for the McCartney family and underlined that the European Commission could not interfere in the legal system of a Member State.
Mr Dimas said that he was confident that the truth would shatter through and that he would inform president Barroso (who met the McCartney sisters in Brussels) about the debate. Dimas provided assurances that the European Commission would examine the possibility of providing financial support to the family in its fight for justice (he also referred to the aid provided by the EU to the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland).
Kathy Sinnot from Ireland (Democracy and Independence) said that they could help the family pay the legal bills but asked whether this would bring justice. She also said that she wanted to speak in a personal capacity, as a woman and mother. Marian Harkin (ALDE, Ireland) said that women were under- represented at the negotiating table for peace in Northern Ireland but when it came to “peacemaking” women were there. Harkin condemned the murder of Robert McCartney and the wall of silence surrounding it, warning that in Northern Ireland there were no “good guys on one side and the bad guys on the other”. Avril Doyle (EPP-ED) said that there up to eleven “killers” and a “significant number” of whom were members of the Provisional IRA had hit and stabbed Robert McCartney but none of the 70 witnesses, terrorised by the IRA, had spoken out. British Green Jean Lambert and Irish Socialist Proinias de Rossa denounced the offer to shoot the killers, exclaiming that “the IRA is not justice!” Northern Ireland MEP, James Hugh Allister (Democratic Unionist Party) vehemently evoked the “classic IRA style” of the murderous attack and denounced those who were guilty and still strutting around the Belfast streets. Eoin Ryan (UEN) from Ireland asked why the McCartney sisters had to go to Brussels or Washington to seek justice and not at home. UEN president Brian Crowley (Ireland) called for practical support for the sisters and paid them homage, “here are ordinary people who have succeeded in doing something extraordinary”.
In a resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority (555 for, 4 against, with 48 abstentions), the European Parliament condemned the violence and crimes perpetrated by the IRA, notably the murder of Robert McCartney. It underlined that the sisters and the partner of Robert McCartney deserved all the support possible in their quest for justice. It calls for Sinn Fein leasers to insist that those responsible for or witnesses to the murder cooperate directly with the police service in Northern Ireland and are not subject to IRA reprisals. It proposes that if the Northern Irish police service is unable to make a prosecution for the murder of Robert McCartney, the European Union provides, in compliance with financial regulations, a financial contribution to legal costs of Robert McCartney's family in the efforts to obtain justice in civil proceedings. The Parliament is therefore calling on the Commission to use the general EU budget line to this effect in support of the victims of terrorism.