The European Parliament today approved the regulation that will enable Member States to freeze assets of organisations thought to have links with terrorist networks and curb thus up financing of terrorism. In acting with unprecedented speed using an emergency procedure (the Commission presented the draft regulation only last Tuesday) the Parliament has enabled the Council of general affairs to adopt the text at its meeting of next Monday.
The Parliament amended the Commission's proposal in order to make sure that the measures are temporary, as the chairman of the Citizens' Freedoms, Justice and Home Affairs pointed out that the proposal was drafted in haste and needs to be improved. The regulation, as voted by the Parliament, stipulates that the measures will expire at the end of 2003 and will be reviewed within a year. Also, the annex listing 27 organisations whose assets are being frozen should be amended in order to include other terrorist organisations, following the fast-track procedure.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said today that the ministers of foreign affairs of EU countries meeting next Monday in Luxembourg will have to take account of amendments made by the European Parliament to the proposal to freeze assets of organisations allegedly linked to terrorism. The spokesman also said that a larger number of member states have already frozen assets of those organisations listed by the United States.
The European Commission's proposal to freeze assets of persons and organisations who are thought to have links with terrorist networks involved in the terrorist attacks in the United States sparked a polemic over the legal basis used by the Commission in order to justify the proposal. The Commission based its proposal on article 308 of the EU Treaty, a controversial and rarely used article, as it gives the EU the possibility to legislate in areas where action by the Community was not envisaged by the Treaty.
Article 308 of the Treaty states: "If action by the Community should prove necessary to attain, in the course of the operation of the common market, one of the objectives of the Community and this Treaty has not provided the necessary powers, the Council shall, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, take the appropriate measures." The use of the article 308 to fast track measures in the fight against terrorism has triggered criticism that it is in breach of both national constitutions and the laws of the European Union itself.
The regulation was adopted with 417 votes in favour, 44 against and 18 abstentions. Danish MEP, Professor in law at Copenhagen University, Ole Krarup, representing the Danish Peoples Movement, expressed the worries of MEP's voting against the emergency legislation by saying that even suspected criminals shared the basic human right of a fair trail. He said, that the EU Commission had been handed a list from the US of 27 suspected individuals and organisations but MEP's were not provided with any evidence of their assumed illegal activities. "We are asked to convict these 27 without evidence, without trial and final," Mr Krarup said. Written by Daniela Spinant Edited by Lisbeth Kirk Link to proposal: