Brussels, 13/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations on 28 November of the Barcelona Process, which strengthens cooperation between the EU and its neighbouring Mediterranean countries, the European Parliament is preparing a balance sheet of the process in a report drafted by Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE, Finland). The human rights sub-committee organised a hearing on 11 July at the European Parliament in Brussels that allowed experts to voice their opinions on the results of the partnership on human rights. Sandrine Grenier, coordinator of the Euro-Mediterranean human rights network to the EU said that the results were “very disappointing”. At a regional level, “the human rights situation has not improved, indeed, on the contrary in some cases. Although human rights have become indispensable in official documents, there have not been concrete results or practical action”. Civil society is overflowing with projects but, as Grenier points out, “resources are still needed to put these projects into operation”. At a bilateral level, the balance sheet is less negative. Human rights appear to have been tackled more in the context of the Association Agreements between the EU and the Mediterranean countries and the work groups that have been set up. Nonetheless, “neighbourhood policy should receive more support through a clear political will”. The sociologist Khaled Fouad Allam also underlined the absence of a Mediterranean political area. This contemporary Islamic studies specialist explained that, “it is not up to the European Commission to set up this political area in which countries of the Mediterranean can express themselves”. He suggested the setting up of a “Council of Mediterranean countries” in charge of analysing human rights relative issues.
Two precise points were tackled during this hearing. The first affected human rights and immigration policy “It is essential to avoid any attempt to mix migration phenomena with anti-terrorism strategies”. Nabil Adghogi, Plenipotentiary Minister at the Moroccan Mission to the EU explained that this would be, “dangerous and would feed into populist behaviour”. Supporting the ideas of Minister Claire Rodier, the Migrations Network pointed out that “after ten years issues linked to immigrant rights have practically been left untreated”. The second deals with the fight against terrorism and the need to respect fundamental freedoms. According to Gijs de Vries, EU anti-terrorism coordinator, “balance” has to be maintained between security and the need to respect civil liberties. He alluded to the roots and causes of terrorism winch are not always directly linked and estimated that “what we need for defending ourselves against terrorism, is a strategy that defends human rights”. Gabrièle Jen from Amnesty International's European office highlighted the fact that Euro-Mediterranean cooperation still remained “veiled, and lacking transparency” and that the definition of terrorism was sometimes so broad that it was subject to abuse, notably in terms of torture and arbitrary detentions.