Madam President, the Liberal Democrats in this House welcome the decisions of the extraordinary European Council. We are pleased that it took on board proposals from this House in the field of justice and home affairs on combating terrorism and indeed that it reviewed the Union's policies in other areas to ensure that we have joined-up thinking in our approach to this very serious problem. We regret, however, that it took a shock like the bombing of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon to push the Union into using the legal powers that it has under the Treaty of Amsterdam to act in fighting terrorism. Liberal Democrats welcome particularly the Commission's proposals of yesterday for a Council Regulation to freeze the assets of terrorist groups. We note its request for urgency and will be pushing this morning within the committee I have the honour to chair to make a recommendation to Parliament this afternoon to adopt those proposals. I hope that the Committee of Permanent Representatives meeting this morning will add its request for urgency to that of the Commission. The need for action in this area throws into sharp relief the weaknesses and the contradictions of the European Union post-Amsterdam. These were not dealt with properly at Nice. I hope they will be dealt with at Laeken and through the convention which will be established. Commissioner Patten yesterday rightly lamented the inability of the European Union to act fast in situations like this and thus to enjoy the confidence of its Member States and to coordinate the policies of its Member States in an area where a supranational threat requires a supranational response. At times like this the Union must act fast, but finds it cannot act fast. The mechanisms of the third pillar leave Mr bin Laden laughing all the way to the cash machine. I challenge the national governments to explain to our citizens why Europe has been incapable of acting fast because of the curious and complicated mechanisms of the third pillar. When we act fast we find that we need urgency and urgency frequently leads to bad law. We cannot continue to adopt the necessary security measures for our citizens in a way which is infelicitous for the Union's institutions, incomprehensible to our citizens and ineffective because it allows for no proper legal, democratic or administrative control of decisions. I hope that the convention set up by Laeken will look at invoking Article 42 of the TEU to bring these policy areas fully within the core competences of the Union. Many measures will be needed in the coming months. Commissioner Vitorino has provided us with an anti-terrorism road map outlining such measures. Clearly, in our consideration of these, a delicate balance will need to be struck between the security needs of our citizens and the civil liberties which make our democracy what it is. The President-in-Office said this morning that we should not be blown off course on our other agendas. I agree with him. Those agendas include our agenda to consolidate citizens' rights within the Union and our agenda of anti-discrimination. Liberals in this House will defend, with the President-in-Office, the rights of EU citizens. The House has received a proposed regulation on the freezing of assets. That regulation could potentially, depending on its implementation, have a disastrous effect on many legitimate Muslim-owned businesses. Therefore Liberals will be calling for a sunset clause in that regulation giving it a limited life to make sure that it is not being abused in its implementation. We look forward to proposals from the Council for the involvement of the European Parliament in determining the names that will be put on the list in the annex to that regulation. In conclusion, Article 6 says that the Union is founded on rights. The Charter defines those rights and we hope that the convention will agree to insert the Charter fully into the Treaties. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR