Wishes and a constraint. We will have to get used to it: we will all be less free and more subject to controls and constraints, in the latest phase of the fight against terrorism ahead. We will have to accept it with good grace, because terrorists have sunk to the last degree of ignominy, and it is our society's duty to protect children, women and citizens in general. I devoted a long paragraph to this issue in this column on 24 March, but I must come back to it, due to certain unfavourable reactions to measures Europe is obliged to take. Europe's real wishes and intentions have been proven by its achievements, and it's not its fault it has to go backwards a certain way, in the short term. The problem is striking a balance between restrictions and individual liberty, which must be safeguarded as far as possible.

These freedoms, and citizens' rights, have reached a level in most European countries rarely seen in the history of humanity, and the European Union was in the process of transferring the issue to Community level: border control disappeared within the Schengen area, flying became as easy as taking the tram, etc. We know who to blame if control points and restrictions have been brought back in. The United Kingdom has long struggled to maintain all of its victories in terms of individual rights, but it too must resign itself to the need to bring in certain limits on freedom to say and print whatever one likes, because the fanatics have used this to incite hatred and murder. The way terrorists have used European freedoms to organise their murderous networks on our soil and prepare their attacks, and the treachery with which they have used the citizenship they have acquired in one of our countries for the ease of organising their atrocities, force the authorities of the Member States and the European authorities to bring in unwanted and disagreeable restrictions, which affect us all. Flying, once again, becomes a chore, so stringent have document and baggage checks become. Portugal has already announced that it will suspend various provisions of the Schengen Treaty (under the temporary suspension permitted by the Treaty) for the forthcoming European football championships it is hosting, to reduce the risks of attacks. Greece will then do the same for the Olympic Games. Pending passports which can identify holders with certainty, Europeans wanting to go to the United States will have to have digital fingerprints taken.

Inconvenience for immigrants too. It is clear that stepping up precautions will also affect immigrants, who will also be subject to reinforced controls and extra restrictions. Two fundamental principles which have not always been affirmed and applied everywhere with sufficient rigour should, I feel, be underlined:

a) those taking on the citizenship of a country of the Union are not a kind of "horizontal community" across the national borders of the Member States. There is no official Turkish, Kurdish, North African or any other community in the EU, just Germans, French, Belgians etc of Turkish, Algerian, or Kurdish origin or any other, who have a clear right to remain faithful to the beliefs, traditions and way of living of their countries of origin, but this in no way equates to a separate community within the country of which they have become citizens;

b) the laws and rules of the host country apply in full to its new citizens. This is pure logic; but yet we all know about certain outrageous "demands", such as separating young girls and young boys in school swimming pools, preventing male doctors from attending women of certain origins, to say nothing of this unbelievable weakness on sexual mutilation. Every law and statute on gender equality must be respected to the letter. I find this resentment of the veil (by which a women is simply affirming her personal beliefs, as is her right) quite ridiculous, given the blind eye turned towards far more serious discrimination.

What I have just said may not suit certain political forces, but the principles I have mentioned stem from neither the right wing nor the left, but simply from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. One cannot choose among these rights: also listed are the right to asylum and family reunification, the fight against social exclusion, the protection of personal data. At the moment, the emphasis is on the fight against terrorism, and this is perfectly understandable, as long as we don't forget all the rest.

(F.R.)