For some time now, and especially recently, the European Union has been no more than a factory churning out legislation which undermines democratic freedoms (Schengen Information System, extended powers for EUROPOL, European public prosecutor, restrictions on the entry and movement of immigrants). A typical example is the report on initiatives to combat terrorism adopted just a few days before 11 September. Now the European Parliament is being asked to give its opinion – an opinion which is in no way binding on the Council or the Commission – on two framework decisions on so-called terrorism and the European arrest warrant. It is perfectly clear that the horrendous events of 11 September have been used as a pretext to speed up the application of political decisions taken a long time ago. The perpetrators of, and accessories to, these attacks have played straight into the hands of the American and European imperialists, giving them an excuse to settle both international and domestic accounts. The Communist Party of Greece, with its sense of responsibility for grass-roots freedoms and rights and bitter experience of the laws which sent thousands of members of the Greek resistance into jail, exile or to the firing squad and which are nightmarishly similar to a number of the provisions being proposed, has a duty to divulge the real intentions of the rulers of the European Union. We should point out that all so-called ‘terrorist crimes’ are already punished under current criminal legislation in all the Member States. The real aim here is to terrorise any civil resistance or disobedience movements and the parties proactively opposing and reacting to political and capitalist globalisation as a whole or certain aspects of it. Standard forms of resistance, such as sit-ins, or the effects of resistance, such as interruptions to electricity or water supplies when the sectors in question go on strike, can easily be classified as terrorist crimes. The cotton farmers reduced to desperation by union policy who have taken to the national roads in their tractors are in danger of being classified as terrorists and thrown into prison for at least 5 to 10 years. We have reached the point where expressing an opinion is punished as a terrorist crime. The framework decision on the European arrest warrant, the legality of which is open to question, undermines the sovereign rights of the Member States and contradicts Articles 5 (2), 6 and 7 of the Greek constitution. The abolition of double indemnity, the facility to extradite a national to another state, the facility for the state to which the accused has been extradited to extradite him (without the permission of the state which extradited him in the first place) to a third country which is not a Member State of the European Union (for example, a Kurd is extradited by Greece to Germany, which then extradites him to Turkey without asking Greece) contradict basic principles of criminal law. They also contradict fundamental procedural rights and freedoms which are vital to the defence of those facing prosecution. The terrorist law and European arrest warrant are the last bricks in the edifice of a nightmarishly suppressive mechanism. It is obvious that the people building this edifice know full well that their anti-grass roots policy at both European Union and global level will provoke a grass-roots reaction. They expect this reaction to swell and fear the deluge of grass-roots anger. What they do not know, or perhaps refuse to accept, is that no force on earth can stop this deluge. At best, the proposed amendments attempt to improve certain offensive positions or shortcomings in the text, although they do nothing to change their nature. We cannot be party to this sort of approach. The only honest stand which respects collective and individual democratic rights is to reject the two proposals outright. That is why the MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece voted against the report.

Political group: GUE-NGL