JURIST - Paper Chase: Draft EU counterterror proposals lack rights protections: Marty

[JURIST] New EU anti-terror laws proposed by the European Commission [official website] fail to adequately reconcile human rights concerns and may conflict with the Council of Europe's Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism [COE materials], Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Rapporteur Dick Marty [personal website; JURIST news archive] said Monday in a statement [text; press release] before the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs [official website]. Marty expressed surprise that the new package of counter terrorism proposals [press release; news conference recorded video]:

borrows selectively from the Council of Europe convention when the convention itself provides for EU accession to it. As the EU (and all its member states) actively took part in the negotiations when the Council of Europe convention was being drawn up, there has to be a question mark about the duplication which the proposals would create and about their compatibility with the spirit and letter of the Memorandum of Understanding which the Council of Europe and the EU signed in May 2007.

Marty urged that a "safeguard clause" be included in the new proposal, which would state that any new anti-terror measures would not be exempt from existing international human rights law.

EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini introduced [JURIST report] the proposed anti-terror measures on behalf of the European Commission in November. Key provisions of the new counter-terrorism package include a proposal to amend the Framework Decision on combating terrorism [press release] to criminalize recruitment and training for terrorism, particularly when committed through the Internet.