Mr President, on 27 May 2002, the Council adopted Regulation (EEC) 881/2002 in the aim of transposing a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions. In practical terms this dealt with two resolutions establishing actions, principally the freezing of funds and other economic resources, applicable to the persons and bodies included on the list created by the United Nations Sanctions Committee specifically for this purpose. The European Parliament delivered its opinion on 11 April 2002, under an emergency procedure, and adopted the Resolution with 14 amendments. Last December, the United Nations Security Council adopted another Resolution, No 1454 of 2002, recognising certain exceptions to the obligation to freeze funds and economic assets. On this basis, the European Commission submitted the proposal before us today, which echoes, almost word for word, the United Nations text. This proposal, therefore, concerns authorising the release of funds for the individuals included on the list, in order to cover basic human needs, such as expenses related to food, medical treatment, legal fees, rent, etc. as the Parliament European itself called for in the Resolution of 11 April 2002, to which I have already referred. On that occasion, however, the plenary of the European Parliament also tabled other amendments that were not included by the Council in Regulation (EEC) 881/2002, or by the Commission in its current proposal. For this reason, the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs voted for a range of amendments that are adopted in the report before us today, which I propose we endorse in its entirety. There are five amendments, which seek the express inclusion in the Community Regulation of the procedure for deleting the names of individuals from the list of terrorists currently in force in the United Nations, to ensure that the European Parliament is fully involved and informed, and to deal with the need for the lifespan of this Regulation to be in line with the period of validity of the United Nations resolutions it is transposing. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, having touched briefly on a specific issue, that we today have the task of debating, I wish to take the last few minutes of the speaking time I have left to make a more general observation on the reasons that have led to our having to adopt this type of international and European law. The reason is nothing less than the persistence of terrorism. Indeed, over the last year and a half in particular, bloody terrorist brutality has shaken the entire world. Focusing on the fight against terrorism in the European Union, I wish to highlight one aspect that I believe is relevant. If we do indeed all agree that we wish to create an area of freedom, security and justice, we must work to ensure that its three components work fully and with equal intensity throughout the territory of the European Union. Nevertheless, there is no point in talking about a European area of this nature if, in practice, not all of the European territory is fair, safe and free. The main cause of this is the persistence of terrorism in the European Union. This is not something alien to our borders but something that persists within these very borders. To this end, the competent European authorities have started working on adopting an entire legislative arsenal to combat the terrorist scourge. Although all actions to achieve this end can be questioned and, of course, evaluated; I also wish to condemn those voices that have been raised, which are much more concerned about safeguarding the rights and freedoms of terrorists than with remembering the harm, the suffering and the despair that these people inflict on their victims, not to mention the sense of injustice and impotence engendered by such acts. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, I fervently hope in future to see practical approaches to the rights and freedoms of the victims of terrorism and their families. In this context, and taking advantage of the Commission’s presence amongst us today – I see that the Council is not present – I shall take the opportunity to suggest the idea that is already beginning to be talked of in the corridors and to which I hope we will soon have an answer; I am referring to studying the possibilities of creating a mechanism for solidarity at European level that provides formulas for compensating European citizens who have been the victims of terrorist attacks on EU territory. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE