Mr President, it is true that the progress referred to by the rapporteur and the representatives of the Council and the Commission – whom I congratulate – has been made, but it must be admitted that that progress is not sufficient. Indeed, the most serious obstacle today to the development of the area of freedom, security and justice is the failure to adopt the draft Constitutional Treaty which, by making the Charter of Fundamental Rights binding in every sector of the Union’s activities and extending the Community method to include judicial, criminal and police cooperation, would have resolved many of the problems that still remain. We hope that this is nothing more than a mere delay. Meanwhile, steps should be taken to overcome certain paradoxical contradictions which continue to hold back the implementation of the Tampere programme, above all in the field of immigration and criminal and police cooperation. In fact, the very governments, which at Tampere approved a reasonable raft of measures, subsequently often fail to adopt them when those measures are proposed by the Commission and requested by Parliament. When subsequently, perhaps as the result of some emergency or other, those measures are finally adopted, frequently they are not implemented in the countries in question: such is the case, as an example of the latter, with the arrest warrant and the decision on racism and xenophobia. It therefore needs to be constantly borne in mind that dismantling internal borders enhances freedom of movement in the internal market, but also works to the advantage of criminals if the powers to prevent and control crime continue to be delimited by national borders. Now is the time, therefore, to relaunch an updated political programme for the harmonious construction of a European legal area, not limited to partial responses to specific emergencies, and we await expectantly the communication promised us by the Commission. With regard to the particular case of immigration, as repeatedly demanded by this Parliament, it is essential to lay down a common policy governing the entry, residence and integration of citizens from third countries which is not restricted to stamping out clandestine immigration. The delays and inconsistencies, however, which have been most noticeable on the part of the Council and Member States, are those in relation to the promotion and protection of fundamental individual rights. Measures are being adopted which, in fact, fail to respect fundamental rights with the result that Parliament is forced to bring such measures before the Court of Justice, the most recent example being family reunification. Common standards in respect of procedural guarantees are not being adopted and, as a result, closer forms of cooperation are being denied because States distrust each other when it comes to respecting those guarantees. Finally, the issue of personal data protection is particularly sensitive and serious questions remain to be asked about the conduct of a large number of Member States which allowed the personal data of European citizens to be handed over to US security agencies which provide no guarantee that our citizens’ fundamental right to privacy will be respected. In that connection, it must be said that the Commission’s conduct, marked by inaction and complicity, has been deplorable. The time has certainly come to adopt more effective measures in order to protect the rights of our citizens.

Political group: PSE