Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Mr President,
Commissioner, as the last Justice and Home Affairs Council demonstrated, the
system for taking unanimous decisions on matters of justice and home affairs
has come to the end of its cycle. If the Berlusconi Government manages, even
for a short time, to block the decision on the European arrest warrant, can you
imagine what will happen when the Union of the 15 becomes a Union of 30 if we
continue to insist on an intergovernmental rather than a Community method for
taking decisions? A propos, my congratulations to the Belgian Presidency on the
battle which it won in Rome yesterday.
The Council is clearly unwilling to make any
fundamental reforms on the basis the commitments made in Tampere, despite the
assiduous efforts of Commissioner Vitorino and the political will demonstrated
by the European Parliament. The only sector in which the Council has evinced
any particular interest or enthusiasm is in the fight against terrorism, under
pressure from and at the suggestion of the United States which, I am afraid, is
trying to export and impose its system of justice on Europe, a system which
clashes with European customs and values. How can we extradite European
citizens to the USA when the United States cannot guarantee that it will not
impose the death penalty? I am afraid, Commissioner, that the alliance with the
USA is becoming more and more dangerous for the European Union.
The fact that strict rules are being promoted within
an already strict framework is understandably causing concern among citizens,
who fear that the fundamental liberties and human rights which they have fought
long and sacrificed much for will be restricted. The end clearly does not
justify the means. For the rest, half way through the five-year period set by
the Amsterdam summit for creating a European area of freedom, security and
justice, we are seriously behind schedule, for example in formulating a common
immigration and asylum policy. Finally, I wonder, what has happened to European
sensitivity and our humanitarian values, when we are incapable of resolving the
drama of refugees and immigrants despite witnessing daily tragedies such as the
recent suffocation of eight immigrants in southern Ireland?