EU-US agreement undermining International Criminal Court

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th May 2003

Euro-MPs will tomorrow air concerns about the proposed EU-US anti-terrorism agreements when they debate the two texts, one on extradition and the other on mutual assistance in criminal law.

Ahead of the debate, justice spokeswoman for the European Liberal Democrats Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP raises three main objections:

• "We need absolute clarity on the impact on EU countries' duty to deliver war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court. It is already a scandal that the EU is not protecting vulnerable Eastern European states from US pressure for immunity agreements. Are EU states now proposing to compromise their own ICC treaty obligations by making a blanket commitment never to deliver future American suspects?"

• "The data protection safeguards are extremely weak. We know the Europol-FBI agreement has set a precedent for breaching EU standards, but this agreement reaches a new low in stating that broad or generalised ('generic') restrictions could be imposed to stop processing of personal data."

• "There is a presumption that extradition to the US could be undertaken with the same lack of formality as to another EU country. But the European Arrest Warrant scheme rests on shared laws such as the abolition of the death penalty, respect for the European Convention of Human Rights and a growing body of EU fundamental rights law."

Sarah Ludford adds:

"I am even more concerned by what we are not even getting to debate. When the G8 justice & interior ministers on May 5th discussed the use of biometric identification technology and the sharing of data and DNA information, they did not once in their conclusions refer to concerns about privacy or civil liberties.

"There is so little democratic accountability for all of this. While it is legitimate to cooperate internationally to enhance security by fighting terrorists and major criminals, it is not OK to keep justifying the undermining of fundamental rights by reference to 9/11."