Madam President, I have the honour to bring this report to the House on behalf of the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. It was felt appropriate for the chairman of the committee to pilot through the House a report on a matter which requires a wide consensus of support. As a Liberal Democrat, I regard terrorist acts as a unique category of crime which negates democracy. They are designed to destroy the very basis of civil society and I am grateful to committee colleagues for their support for this view and for our subsequent recommendations. There are some who see my report as a response to current terrorist attacks on the Iberian Peninsula. I share the profound concern of those who recognise this as an open wound in Europe’s polity and on behalf of the committee I extend to them my deepest sympathy and solidarity. In my mind, however, my analysis and recommendations should be no more and no less a response to the situation there than to similar situations which have existed, and in some cases continue to pose a threat, in Northern Ireland, in the UK, in Corsica, in France, in Germany, in Italy or other countries which have been subject to attack by ideological terrorist groups. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon, but today it has many new aspects and features. Links between terrorists in different countries now form part of the fretwork of internationally organised crime. In August, we saw evidence of contacts between terrorists in Northern Ireland and their counterparts in Colombia. Such links enhance the capacity of those who use terror for political ends to find weapons, exchange ideas on techniques and escape the arm of the law. Terrorism is also inspired by new motives and new weapons. Some animal welfare groups launch campaigns to terrorise those connected, sometimes only tenuously, to experiments on live animals. Some environmental protection groups harass those involved in oil exploration or exploitation. Computer terrorism and environmental terrorism are worrying features of today’s world. Previous attempts by democratic societies to tackle this threat have met with varying success. Where they have signally failed is in the field of international cooperation between law enforcement agencies or judicial authorities. In the case of the European Union, the tools to improve such cooperation are provided by Articles 29 and 31 of the TEU and yet governments have hesitated to use them. Such reluctance is strangely out of place in a Union founded on the values of humanity and dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity, respect for human rights and freedoms and the rule of law. The decision of Member States to make the Union an area of freedom, security and justice should provide a basis for urgency in tackling a growing terrorist challenge. An unqualified rejection of terrorist organisations and of terrorism should lead to a coherent and binding set of coordinated policies and a spirit of cooperation between governments at all levels. Cooperation between France and Spain or between Britain and Ireland has improved in recent months and yet the opportunities offered by the Amsterdam Treaty for more effective action have not been grasped. I would like to thank Members from all parties in this House for their generous advice and assistance to me in drawing up this report. The report commands a wide consensus of opinion. I am pleased that it opposes the introduction of exceptional laws and procedures. Such measures should not be necessary. They frequently deprive governments of moral superiority and can descend into instances of state-sponsored terrorism. Herein lies a potential danger to democracy. Where the state is not prepared scrupulously to pursue criminal actions against soldiers or policemen guilty of torture, it has little legitimacy. Nonetheless I am opposed to Amendment No 2, which could be interpreted as justifying terrorism and to Amendment No 1, which would delay action in this fight. I believe that the legal systems of all the EU Member States have the capacity to guarantee justice. That is not to say that judicial standards could not be higher. They could be, and raising them is a major challenge for the Union. Unless we are prepared to trust each other’s judicial systems and democratic practices, however, more and more families will be deprived of their loved ones as innocent people lose their lives to those who murder for political ends. My report therefore calls on the Council of Ministers to establish common minimal laws and penalties to counter terrorist acts, to abolish formal extradition procedures for those suspected or convicted of terrorist crimes and to establish a European search and arrest warrant in the fight against terrorist groups. Some may regard such measures as extreme. I believe that all are justified in tackling a form of crime designed to destroy democracy based on the rule of law and I hope that the Commission and Council will respond early to this call for action. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR