Posted on 05/17/2006 10:29:05 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Since the April 2004 Madrid bombing, EU countries have sought to improve EU-wide coordination and cooperation in combating terrorism. They focused on strengthening judicial cooperation and ties between their various national intelligence, investigative, justice, and police agencies. A special coordinator, Gijs de Vries, was appointed to oversee this task. But, while some significant improvements have been made, its still pretty much old hat when in come to dealing with terrorism and cross border criminal activities. Each country still does its own thing. And cross border judicial cooperation continues to be slow and burdensome.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, complained in a May 10th letter to the European Parliament that the 25 members were still not cooperating fully with the mechanisms the EU has created to foster cooperation and often chose to bypass EUROPOL and EUROJUST in carrying out their investigations and prosecutions. It seems just as difficult today to get cross border police and judicial cooperation as it did before Madrid. These problems were underscored last fall when Spain sought to have Germany hold and extradite Mamoun Darkanzali to face possible terrorism charges. At the time the German Constitutional court ordered Darkanzali released when it held the EU Arrest Warrant under which Darkanzali was being held invalid. (see my earlier blog). Since then problems continue to plague the use of the EU Arrest Warrant, and other key cooperative measures.
Now the EU Commission wants a greater and more direct role in coordinating counter-terrorism and counter-criminal actions throughout the EU. José Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission announced May 8th that the Commission intends to press for these authorities at the EU Council in late June. They will propose that the Commission be allowed to exploit to the full the headroom available to them under the present Treaties to transfer to the Community a large number of the decisions in the fields of justice, freedom and security that can be dealt with more effectively at European level than at national level. This includes new directive authorities with regard to the collection of evidence, extradition, prison sentences and financial penalties. They reportedly will also seek to move ahead with the creation of a European Evidence Warrant, establish joint investigative teams, and further empowering Europol and Eurojust. Many of these authorities were included in the proposed new EU Constitution, which was sidetracked last year. Such a decision will mean a substantial improvement in our capacity to find common responses to common problems, Barroso said. People are asking for "more Europe" in order to combat terrorism and organized crime, he said, and It is our duty to respond to this appeal, with or without a Constitution. The new plan will likely be subjected to considerable debate, and will inevitably require unanimous assent from the EU 25
Looks like some in the EURO community are getting more serious....
... serious about creating a new STASI! heil
cross border crime....sound familiar?
Doogle
Do not forget, the EU is a project dreamt up by elitist politicians. They took what was an economic union and are trying to create a political union, a sort of unofficial federation with all power centralized in Brussels.
By centralizing all power in Brussels in the hands of undemocratic and unelected politicians and bureaucrats they have created a system in which they can effectively bypass national parliaments and governments. With every veto EU member states give up, their sovereignty disappears more and more. Every crisis is seen by the EU as an opportunity for a new power grab. I despise the EU.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.