EU Constitution moves in by the back door
Posted, June 07, 2007 @ 16:00
Brussels 7 June -- Plans to resurrect the obsolete EU Constitution have moved one step closer to becoming a reality as the European Parliament voted today to support the controversial Prüm Treaty.
The Prüm Treaty contains many of the measures that were originally part of the EU Constitution which was voted down two years ago by France and the Netherlands. These measures include proposals to give foreign police the right to freely enter the UK and arrest British citizens suspected of crimes abroad with no regard to the current extradition procedures. Other plans include a central European database of EU citizens, containing highly confidential data such as credit cards records. Police would have the right to search any EU citizen’s details even if the person in question is not suspected of any crime.
Despite vocal opposition by MEP Philip Bradbourn, Conservative Spokesman on Justice and Home Affairs, the Parliament has today voted in favour of the Treaty. Mr Bradbourn addressed the Parliament last night in a tough speech outlining his opposition to the Treaty.
Mr Bradbourn said:
“This Treaty fundamentally goes against the rules of data protection and civil liberties that we have come to expect in Europe. This ‘one size fits all approach is clearly inapplicable for countries with very different legal traditions and even senior police in the UK have called for this Treaty to be scrapped, proposing that voluntary bilateral agreements between Member States should be the way forward in security co-operation.
Now that the Parliament has unfortunately voted through the Treaty it is up to the British Government to veto it when it reaches Council of Ministers, which is something Conservatives insist they do”.