Statewatch has today published a damning critique of
crucial EU proposals on suspects' rights in cross-border criminal proceedings,
data protection in the area of police and judicial cooperation, and the
expulsion of migrants from the EU.
Four detailed Statewatch
analyses of the draft EU measures show the extent to which powerful member
states are driving down standards of human rights protection in the creation of
the so-called EU “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”.
Two of these
measures – suspects' rights and data protection – will be discussed by the
Member States at this week's Justice and Home Affairs Council (19-20 April
2007), as reported here earlier today.
The UK along with Germany are specifically mentioned
in this analysis, and where for once Europe is attempting to protect the
rights of citizens, the UK and Germany are limiting the use of the
ECHR and the Data Protection laws.
The proposed EU
Framework Decision on suspects' rights is still opposed by a group of Member
States, led by the UK.
The proposed EU
Framework Decision on data protection has been amended by the German
Presidency, in order to reach an agreement, so that many important principles
of data protection law have been dropped and the Framework Decision has been
limited in scope so as to in effect exclude the issue of data transfer outside
the EU. But a group of Member States, again led by the UK, is seeking to limit the scope of the
proposal still further.
A proposed
Directive on expulsion was weakened at Member States' insistence to reduce most
of the procedural safeguards for individuals, and was then removed altogether at
the behest of the German Presidency.
The
full press release and analysis can be read here.
Opposition
parties should be asking questions in the House as to why our government is not
protecting the rights of UK citizens in drafting
European legislation which will become law in the UK.
The reasons of course are simple. Without dumbing down the European legislation, the UK would be limited in its ability to impose Big Brother tools and data sharing.
NuLab
– Destroying Britain from the inside out.