MEPs threaten to call Barroso to CIA investigation committee

The European Parliament committee investigating illegal CIA activity in Europe will next week debate whether Commission President José Manuel Barroso should appear to give evidence.

Italian Socialist MEP Giovanni Fava, the author of the committee’s report, was reported as saying that Barroso should be called to answer questions regarding suspect flights which landed in Portugal when he was prime minister. But the chairman of the committee, Portuguese centre-right MEP Carlos Coelho, said committee rules stated that only governments should be called to answer questions regarding CIA activity in their countries.

"This has nothing to do with Barroso, it’s just some members from the left trying to politicise the issue," he said.

German socialist MEP Wolfgang Kreissel-Dorfler confirmed the committee co-ordinators would debate the issue in Strasbourg.

A spokesman for Barroso this week denied he had any knowledge of the suspected flights. "During his term of office he never authorised any rendition flights or any other measure that would have been in contradiction with EU law," he told reporters.

The Parliament’s committee is waiting to hear back from the Italian justice minister and the Portuguese and Irish foreign ministers in response to official requests to travel to Brussels to give evidence.

The committee wants to ask Clemente Mastella, Italy’s justice minister, about the abduction of Egyptian national Abu Omar in Milan by CIA agents in 2003. The committee said in an interim report that it was implausible that the abduction "could have been organised and carried out without the Italian authorities or security services being informed thereof in advance".

The Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado and the Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, who has said he would attend, will be questioned about the use of their airports to transport terror suspects for questioning and alleged torture to illegal detention centres.

A committee delegation will question the Romanian foreign and internal affairs ministers about such detention centres when it travels to Bucharest on 17-19 October.

Poland’s ministers for foreign affairs and defence have yet to indicate whether they will meet a committee delegation which travels to Warsaw on 7-9 November. The committee is also travelling to London, where it will meet Geoff Hoon, former defence minister, now Europe minister.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the first government minister to go before the committee, was questioned in Brussels on Thursday (14 September) about flights stopping in Spain which could have been used to transport suspects. An investigation by Spain had not shown any evidence of this and the US had assured the government that no such activity took place, said Ángel Moratinos.

The European Parliament committee investigating illegal CIA activity in Europe will next week debate whether Commission President José Manuel Barroso should appear to give evidence.