CIA activities in Europe: ALDE rejects the dirty war against terrorism

2.36.43pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 14th Feb 2007

Following a tense debate touching on the founding principles of the Union, the European Parliament adopted today a report denouncing the use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners and calling for the initiation of provisions in the Treaty against those Member States which may have violated human rights.

Ignasi Guardans (CiU, Catalonia, Spain), ALDE coordinator on the temporary committee said "What is at stake here is the very credibility of the Union. It is a political message that we are addressing to the Member States that we do not accept that you use, in our name, the methods of a dirty war in the fight against terrorism."

Baroness Sarah Ludford (Lib Dem, UK) and Vice-President of the temporary committee considered that "to suggest that this report is anti-American is absurd". She cited the US Democratic senator, Barak Obama that "what the United States needs is not to be feared but to be respected".

"The United States must demonstrate that it respects the values of democracy and rule of law, not just in preaching such values whilst the EU should be its main ally in defending and promoting them," added Ludford.

In the same context, Parliament also adopted today a resolution demanding that light is shed on the conditions for financial data sharing with the US authorities via the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) as well as a greater involvement of Parliament in the negotiation of the definitive agreement between Brussels and Washington on airline passenger name records PNR.

Sophie In't Veld (D66, Netherlands) and rapporteur on the issue in Parliament welcomed the result of the vote: "The unlimited and uncontrolled manner in which governments now treat our privacy does not make us safer, but severely violates our civil rights. I wonder whether people will continue to react so laconically if it was not the Americans but Russia or China who had our personal data ?" she said.