Press Release

14/02/2007

CIA activities in Europe: 'No' to illegal activities, and 'no' to a biased and inaccurate report. Jas Gawronski MEP

Today, the EPP-ED Group - whilst opposed to all illegal activities and especially the rendition of people for torture purposes - did not support the final report of the temporary committee investigating alleged activities of the CIA in Member States of the European Union because of the lack of evidence regarding allegations of wrongdoing by Member States.

"The temporary committee has found precious little evidence to support the long list of allegations and suppositions of wrongdoing by Member States which have been adopted as hard facts in today's report. However, the wording of the report strongly implies that countries in Europe were massively involved in extraordinary rendition activities and illegal detention. This is unfortunately not a true interpretation of the facts. Amendments by the EPP-ED Group to balance the wording of the resolution were rejected. We therefore had no alternative but to vote against the report", said the Group's Spokesman Jas Gawronski MEP.

The EPP-ED Group insists that EU Member States must abide by international conventions and principles governing human rights.

"We cannot tolerate illegal activities or the rendition of people for torture purposes. We therefore supported the aims of this one-year investigation, but on reading the final report, we must conclude that the investigation has failed. It is disheartening, however, to see that speculations and loose assumptions have been allowed to fill the void where the facts should have been stated", commented Jas Gawronski MEP.

"This is an important issue and therefore the report should have been both accurate and balanced. This is not the situation at present", he concluded.

For further information:
Jas Gawronski MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845292
Peter Adler, EPP-ED Press Service, Tel: +32-474-203005