Brussels, 10/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 8 January, the Swiss weekly, SonntagsBlick, had published a fax dated 15 November 2005 sent by the Egyptian foreign minister to his embassy in London. The fax bears out the fact that “23 Iraqis and Afghans were interrogated in the Mihaïl Kogalniceaunu base in the town of Constanza, in Romania” and that other centres of this kind existed in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Ukraine. Sofia and Bucharest have already denied these allegations. The document also gives information from the NGO Human Rights Watch on the subject of secret US flights via Poland and Romania, end September 2005. Senator Dick Marty, who is currently investigating on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the existence of US detention centres in Europe (EUROPE 9089), has said that he was unable to verify the authenticity of the fax intercepted by the Swiss secret services. In answer to questions put to him by SwissInfo on Monday, Senator Marty nonetheless pointed out that, if the information were to prove correct, then it would be of “great importance”. While Mr Marty's conclusions are expected by end January, the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe should all have replied by 21 February to the questions raised by the secretary general of the organisation, Terry Davis, pursuant to procedure foreseen under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Parliament, for its part, is to take a stance next week on how appropriate it is to launch its own inquiry (EUROPE 9093). After the revelations in SonntagsBlick, Baroness Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) pointed out that such allegations only strengthen the determination of MEPs to discover the truth in this matter. “We are ready to work in close cooperation with Mr Marty”, she added.
After having “noted” the above information on Monday, the European Commission did not immediately wish to comment although Bulgaria and Romania are candidates to EU membership. Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for the Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner, told EUROPE on Tuesday that “we shall respond in due course but we first wish to wait for the conclusions of the double Council of Europe inquiry”. He also hoped that “all Member States of the Council of Europe will answer Mr Davis' questions” and added that “it will also be necessary to look closely at the results of the inquires underway in some Member States and the conclusions of the European parliament should a commission of inquiry be set up”. Franco Frattini, who will be in Bulgaria end January to discuss progress made by that country on justice, security and border security, will “inevitably” tackle the subject of secret detention centres, Mr Roscam Abbing said. It seems evident that the Commission is not ready to move forward until it has sufficient proof against a number of States. At the end of November last, Franco Frattini had envisaged the possibility of suspending the voting rights of EU countries in Council if they harbour secret CIA detention centres (EUROPE 9078).