Tampere deal triggers civil liberties fears

Date: 21/10/1999

By Simon Coss

EU LEADERS showed a worrying disregard for the victims of wrongful arrest their summit in Tampere last week, according to the chairman of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee.

UK Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson says that while governments demonstrated their willingness to beef up the Union's powers to track down and prosecute suspected criminals, they did little to protect the rights of innocent people who find themselves in jail. “I was disappointed that the summit really said very little about the need to protect people from injustice,” he added.

Watson claims EU leaders fell into the trap of making populist statements on 'sexy' subjects, such as the need to get tough on crime, but failed to address adequately the harder-to-sell issue of ensuring that everyone suspected of a crime has the right to a proper defence.

He pointed to the fact that while summiteers agreed to fund the creation of the 'Eurojust' public prosecutors' network and a training programme for the EU's top police officers, no equivalent provisions were made to ensure suspects' rights are protected.

The Finnish presidency has rejected this criticism, pointing out that EU leaders agreed to introduce minimum standards of legal aid for people involved in cross-border court cases.

They also decided that multi-lingual forms should be introduced to ensure people know precisely what crime they are accused of.