WRITTEN QUESTION E-1436/02 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Torture in the EU.
Date: 2002-05-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Amnesty International, Spain, competence of the Member States, cruel and degrading treatment, ethnic group, human rights, protection of minorities, report, rights of aliens, torture

12.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 309 E/125

Mexico, and is intending to do so with Chile on the occasion of the forthcoming Madrid European and
Latin American summit? Why can an agreement with Chile be signed, and not with Brazil, Argentina,
Uruguay and Paraguay as members of Mercosur?

Reply

(30 September 2002)

1.
As you are probably aware, the Council formally approved the EU-Mercosur negotiating directives on
13 September 1999, based on the political compromise reached in Luxembourg on 21 June 1999. This
compromise instructed the Commission to start negotiations on non-tariff elements immediately and to
begin negotiations on tariffs and services on 1 July 2001 in the light of the results of the WTO round. The
Commission has a mandate to negotiate with Mercosur and it is fully in charge of these negotiations.

It is recalled that the Council, at its meeting on 28 January 2002, reiterated the importance it
2.
It also
attaches to the establishment of an Association Agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
welcomed the progress already achieved in those negotiations and reiterated the EU commitment to
continue to make further progress.

3.
At the EU-Mercosur Summit in Madrid on 17 May, the Heads of State and of Government of both
regions, in the light of their objective to make rapid progress and conclude the negotiations as soon as
possible, agreed to give a new impetus to the economic/trade negotiations under the interregional
association agreement. With this in mind, they agreed that before the next meeting of the Bi-regional
Negotiating Committee, there will be a meeting between EU and Mercosur negotiators at ministerial level.
This meeting is expected to take place in Brasilia during the month of July 2002.

(2002/C 309 E/148)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1436/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(23 May 2002)

Subject: Torture in the EU

A recent Amnesty International report denounced the practice of torture in Spain, involving foreigners and
ethnic minorities. It cited 321 cases in the last seven years, 32 of them documented in detail, including 6
deaths and 5 rapes or sexual assaults. Is the Council aware of this type of inhuman practice in Member
States other than Spain? What measures has it taken, if appropriate, to disavow the practice of torture?
What measures has it taken to investigate claims of torture, prevent torture and punish it where it has
been proven to exist?

Reply

(3 October 2002)

The Council would inform the Honourable Member that each Member State is responsible for the respect
for and safeguard of fundamental human rights, including the right of any person to a fair trial.

The Union’s responsibility in this case, as set out in Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union, concerns
situations where the Union acts in the exercise of its competence.

Launching investigations into a Member State of the kind suggested by the Honourable Member does not
fall within the competence of the Council.