UPDATE 30 JUNE 2016: The vote of the draft in LIBE committee is postponed to the 4 July 2016.
UPDATE 21 JUNE 2016: The vote of the draft in LIBE committee is postponed to the 27 June 2016.
Paris, 20 June 2016 — Unless it is postponed in the last minute1Our latest informations tell us that the vote could be postponed to the 27 June., a vote will take place tomorrow in the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament on the directive on combating terrorism. The rapporteur Ms Hohlmeier also asks for a mandate to open negotiations with the EU Council in trialogue2Trialogues are conciliation committees between the European Parliament, Council of the EU and the European Commission. before the EP plenary. This unjustified and dangerous bypassing of democratic process aims at preventing MEPs and citizens from looking too close into the dangerous provisions of this directive.
Due to the very sensitive subjects in the directive (censorship of websites, legalisation of intrusive investigative tools, etc.) it is very important for MEPs to be able to discuss and to adopt an amended version of this text in plenary session before negotiating it in a trialogue.
In the LIBE Committee, Ms Hohlmeier tried to bypass the debate and the negotiations with the shadows by tabling compromise amendments only a few hours before the meetings with the shadow rapporteurs, by choosing bilateral discussions instead of collective meetings and by avoiding a real debate during the shadow meetings. This kind of behaviour is not worthy of the democratic arena that the European Parliament should be. The current version of the text to be voted tomorrow in LIBE committee is more Ms Hohlmeier’s work than the work of the entire LIBE Committee. Ms Hohlmeier is pressured by Member States to adopt urgently this Directive and legalise at the European level without proper oversight the dangerous measures that exist in some national legislations on censorship and surveillance.
We urge the LIBE Committee members to vote against the mandate for a trialogue before a plenary session to Ms Hohlmeier. We urge all MEPs to keep their eyes open on the processes and the content of the Directive. The adoption of measures that harm fundamental rights cannot be justified by invoking the threat of terrorism. This Directive must be the result of a clear, transparent and global discussion on fundamental rights and the value and flaws of various means to fight it. Laws have been adopted in the last years, both in Europe and in other parts of the world, that are dangerous for civil rights and inefficient in fighting terrorism. The European Parliament must remain strong in the face of the urgency claims by Ms Hohlmeier, the European Councils’ arm in the European Parliament.