Guantanamo Bay - A legal limbo (EP)

Speech by Sarah Ludford MEP delivered to European Parliament on Wed 12th Mar 2003

How can there be sufficient mutual trust between the United States and the EU on law enforcement and upholding of fundamental rights, such as to justify agreement on exchange of information, mutual legal assistance and extradition, whilst European citizens are interned without charge, in breach of international law, in Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay?

Papandreou, Council. (Greek) In reply to Baroness Ludford, the Council has given its presidency detailed instructions to negotiate an agreement between the European Union and the United States on mutual judicial assistance in criminal matters on the basis of Article 24 of the EU Treaty. The provisions of this agreement are intended to supplement the provisions of the bilateral agreements signed by the US and the Member States of the European Union.

Negotiations are still under way. As soon as the Council reaches a decision on signing the agreement and, once it has been signed, the presidency will report to the European Parliament on the results of the negotiations.

Ludford (ELDR). I thank the President-in-Office of the Council for that reply, but is it not a fact that our trust in American civil liberties guarantees is being severely shaken and that it is a tragedy that in the United States, under the Bush administration, standards of fairness and due process are being sacrificed?

Just two days ago a federal appeals court rejected attempts to clarify the legal situation of some Guantanamo Bay detainees, including two Britons. The court, in a decision that could leave the detainees in legal limbo indefinitely, said that foreigners had no rights under the US Constitution and could not invoke the jurisdiction of US courts to test the legality of restraints on their liberty. This shocking situation, which contrasts with what will be the case when the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes binding, under which foreigners as well as EU citizens will have their basic rights guaranteed, comes hot on the heels of other miscarriages of justice such as the case of a Briton who was executed when a Texas judge refused to look at DNA evidence and another Briton held for three weeks in prison in South Africa because of FBI incompetence.

In these circumstances, how can we trust the American criminal justice and law enforcement system? Should you not be consulting the European Parliament before making the agreements that the Council intends to make?

Papandreou, Council. (Greek) First of all, may I say that I appreciate your question as both a question and a stand; I have taken due note of it in my capacity as representative of the Council and I shall pass your thoughts on to the Council.

Secondly, I should like to point out that a dialogue has opened with the United States on a series of human rights issues, such as the death penalty. I think that the European Union has every reason to defend what it considers are basic rights and it will do so with every partner and every country, especially the United States, with which we share common values and common objectives. I should also like to confirm that, as I said, we have issued detailed instructions for an agreement to be negotiated between the European Union and the United States and I am therefore confident that all these issues will be covered in the negotiations, which are still under way, meaning that it would be premature to comment on their progress.