WRITTEN QUESTION E-3441/03 by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Council. EU action against the Guantánamo Bay prison.
Date: 2003-11-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Cuba, EU national, EU policy, United States, military base, prisoner, right to justice, terrorism, third country

C 84 E/240

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Since 1995 the EU has held a human rights dialogue with China in principle once per Council
3.
Presidency and has organised related seminars on human rights issues with NGOs. These dialogue
meetings are conducted on the basis of detailed reports of the human rights situation on the ground
prepared by the EU Heads of Delegation in Beijing, which take into account a variety of credible sources,
including reports by human rights NGOs. Heads of Delegation are involved in the follow-up to these
meetings and in carrying out démarches on individual cases of concern.

4.
During the last round of the EU-China human rights dialogue, which took place in Beijing on
27/28 November 2003, both sides acknowledged once again that human rights are an important element
of their overall relations and that it is important to keep up the momentum of the Summit. During this
meeting and in addition to the issues mentioned above, the EU raised ‘inter alia’ the question of minority
rights, co-operation with UN special mechanisms, torture and administrative detention, discrimination
against persons living with HIV/AIDS and co-operation projects to strengthen human rights protection in
China.

(2004/C 84 E/0284)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3441/03

by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Council

(20 November 2003)

Subject: EU action against the Guantánamo Bay prison

The European Parliament has asked the current President of the Council, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, to protest to Washington about the imprisonment of EU residents at the US naval base at
Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. 26 EU residents are being held at Camp X-Ray. This prison holds people who
have been arrested in connection with the war on terrorism since 11 September.

Does the Council know exactly what offences these 26 detainees are accused of?

Do not national governments have a responsibility to help safeguard the legal rights of their nationals in
foreign prisons?

Can the Council provide a list of other EU residents who are being held in other non-European prisons for
political reasons or in connection with criminal offences? Does the Council also keep abreast of their
situation? How, specifically, does the Council go about this? To what results has it led in the past?

Reply

(11 March 2004)

The Council is not in a position to provide details of the offences for which any detainees are currently
being held in Guantánamo Bay.

As the Council has previously stated in its replies to Written Questions E-1420/03 and E-2444/03, the
protection of
to the Vienna
the rights and interests of Member States’ nationals abroad pursuant
Convention on Consular Relations is the responsibility of the individual Member States concerned, whether
the individuals involved are being held in Guantánamo Bay or elsewhere.

For this reason, the Council does not maintain any list of the type to which the question refers. If a
Member State chooses to bring the case of detention of one of its nationals abroad to the attention of the
other Member States and requests assistance from the EU in lobbying for his/her release, then the relevant
Council Working Group may agree to the Presidency’s instructing the EU Heads of Mission in the third
country concerned to carry out an appropriate démarche, confidential or otherwise, or to the EU Troika

3.4.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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raising the matter in a political dialogue meeting with the third country concerned, where relevant. In such
cases, the Presidency normally keeps the Member States informed of the outcome of the démarche or
discussion and any follow-up thereto. Such approaches have been successful in some cases in achieving the
desired result.

(2004/C 84 E/0285)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3451/03

by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 November 2003)

Subject: Eurobarometer findings regarding the Euro and inflation

‘Eurobarometer’ 58 covering the period October-November 2002 and published in May 2003 contains a
number of very interesting findings regarding the acceptance of the euro by Eurozone inhabitants.
Page B80 of the report contains the statistical findings from answers to the question as to whether prices
in euro have been rounded up or down, to which 77 % of Eurozone citizens replied that they had been
rounded up, while in certain European Union Member States the percentage is even higher, for example in
Greece (88 %), Spain (89 %) and the Netherlands (91 %). In reply to the question ‘Do you feel personally
attached to the euro?’ 56 % of those questioned in the Eurozone replied that they felt a small degree of
attachment to the single currency (34 %) or none at all (22 %), while 61 % of those questioned felt a fairly
large (36 %) or very large (25 %) degree of attachment compared with their old national currencies (p. B84
of the report), the total percentage being even higher in Greece (67 %) and Italy (71 %) (p. B83).

these Eurobarometer

findings which confirm the suspicion that

the
Is the Council concerned at
introduction of the new currency has led not only to prices being rounded upwards but also provided a
pretext for unjustifiably high price increases with foreseeable consequences regarding consumer income,
particularly among the lowest paid in the Eurozone (for example the Greeks). Has the Council made
recommendations to the governments of those countries in which inflation has noticeably increased
following the introduction of the new currency, provoking consumer dissatisfaction and undermining in
psychological terms acceptance of not only the euro but, more widely, the European Union, and this in the
run-up to the forthcoming enlargement and the European elections of 2004? What replies were given by
the governments concerned?

Reply

(11 March 2004)

Neither the Autumn 2003 Economic Forecasts of the Commission, nor the Annual Report of the ECB for
2002 confirm that the changeover to the Euro has led to high price inflation for consumers in the Euro
area.

However, the Autumn 2003 Economic Forecasts confirm that inflation differentials among Euro Member
States differ widely and that they are forecast to continue to do so in 2004.

In the three largest economies of the Euro area the inflation rate for 2004 is forecast to range from 1,6 %
in Germany to 1,8 % in France and 2,3 % in Italy. Forecasted 2004 inflation rates in other Member States
are higher: 2,8 % in Spain and 3,7 % in Greece for example, partly because of stronger current and past
growth rates.

Average consumer price inflation was for the Euro area in 2000 2,1 %, 2,4 % in 2001 and 2,2 % in 2002
(see table 6 on p. 39 of the ECB Annual Report for 2002).

However, the ECB, for the reasons stated in its report and particularly on p. 42 and following, denies also
that large consumer price increases have in fact taken place.

Therefore, the Council cannot share the view of the Honourable Parliamentarian that the Euro switchover
has led to high price inflation for consumers, particularly in Greece.