EU parliament backs anti-terror warrant Ian Black in Brussels
Thursday February 7, 2002
The GuardianThe European Parliament yesterday overwhelmingly backed the controversial new anti-terrorism measures agreed after September 11 and defeated a call for a key civil liberties safeguard.
Euro-MPs voted to support the EU-wide arrest warrant, which will replace the cumbersome extradition procedures which have made it hard to bring suspects to justice.
All 15 members, including Britain, are expected to bring the measure into national law by January 2004, meaning that a Frenchman can be arrested in Germany on a standard warrant issued in Paris.
The arrest warrant, endorsed by 414 of the 626 MEPs, is a highly integrationist step in a normally closely-guarded area of national sovereignty and the jewel in the crown of the EU's response to September 11.
Civil liberties groups have expressed concern about possible abuse of the warrant, described by one critic as "the ... equivalent of carpet bombing with up to 100 innocent citizens' lives wrecked for every crook or terrorist sent abroad when they could all be questioned at home." But MEPs, in session in Strasbourg, threw out a proposed amendment calling for a "habeas corpus" order to be introduced to ensure that suspects cannot be held for more than 110 days.
Sir Neil MacCormick and Ian Hudghton, Scottish nationalist members of the Green group, told colleagues the amendment would provide a protection of liberty to accompany the extension of police powers.
"If parliament rejects the amendment, your constituents will be deprived of a legal remedy that has for centuries been considered as an essential bulwark of their liberty." they were warned.
MEPs also voted for a common definition of terrorism, but there was unease about lists of terrorist groups and the way they were drawn up by member states.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002