PACE Report+Vote on EU-Turkey Deal brings Juncker+Davutoglu+Austria President+Spain's MFA+Georgia PM
*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- A last-minute endorsed Decision for a Report and a Vote on the controversial EU - Turkey Deal on Mass Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants, taken earliedr Today by the PanEuropean Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, i.e. CoE, is apparently behind a sudden, and otherwise unexplained, rush of an impressive series of Key Political Players, throughout Europe and beyond, who were attracted by CoE Assembly's Spring 2016 Plenary Session, this Week in Strasbourg (18-22 April 2016) ::
- EU Commission's President, Jean-Claude Juncker, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglou, Austrian President Heinz Fischer, even Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, as well as Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo, (etc), are all due to be here soon.
Juncker, (who shall meet also with Davutoglou, as well as with the Georian PM) kickStarts the 1st, from Early Next Morning, closely followed by the Turkish PM, on Tuesday, i.e. one whole Day Before CoE Assembly's Final Vote on a Resolution about the controversial EU - Turkey Deal, scheduled for Wednesday Afternoon.
Meanwhile, another notoriously Strategic Geo-Political Player also on the field of Mass Migrants via Turkey, (i.e. through EU Member Greece, but even through Italy, via Libya, etc), is expected on Wednesday Morning, by a coincidence, on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Accession of Wien to the CoE, back on April 16, 1956, (Comp., f.ex. : ....).
To all this was added also the Spanish Foreign Minister Garcia-Margallo, a former EU Parliament MEP well known in Strasbourg, who is due to Speak and Answer Questions at CoE's Assembly just before it starts Debating and Voting on the EU - Turkey Deal about Mass Migrants. His participation, the Closest possible to the main issue,
(Comp. Supra), is quite Logical, since Spain has a notoriously functional Agreement with Neighbouring Morocco to help Prevent such Massive Asylum Seekers/Irregular Immigrants "Tsunami", as that which was suddenly thrown upon EU Member Greece since Last Summer 2015, through Turkey.
Last, but not least, even the Prime Minister of Georgia, Kvirikashvili, (ater meeting with Juncker here already since Tuesday), will Start his official Visit to the CoE witha first Press-point, etc, shortly Before that Crucial CoA Assembly Vote on the EU - Turkey Deal, at an Earlier Time of that same Wednesday Afternoon, (followed also by a Thursday Morning subsequent session. Indeed, as a well informed Georgian Lady Expert has already told "Eurofora", it's enough to have a Look at a Map in order to undestand that, in fact, there is a close GeoPolitical Proximity between Georgia and Syria/Iraq...
This explains, also, the relevant Fact that so many Christian Refugees from Syria or Iraq, etc., have strived to reach Armenia, instead of Turkey, known for its Islamic trend and its reportedly "Islamic Agenda" Local Chiefs at most Camps located at its South-Eastern Borders, that the Greek Authorities proved astonishingly Unable to Find not even, at least, one (1) Christian Family among more than 55.000 Mass Asylum Seekers' comming from Turkey, in order to propose that to the Pope, instead of giving him only Muslim Candidates, in all three (3) Asylum Seeker Families taken under Protection of the Vatican, as several mainstream Media observed, (f.ex., France's ""Figaro", etc)...
A Motion for an "Urgent" Debate on the controversial EU Turkley Deal on Mass Migrants had already been Tabled, last Friday. But it had been presented at the usual CoiE Press Briefing with Strasboueg Journalists (including "Eurofora"), exceptionaly "burried" among a very Long List of various Other Motons on Differend Issues, (f.ex. Nagorno-Karabach, Panama Papers' scandal, Brussel Attacks by Deadly Islamist Terrorists, etc), that nobody had noticed then...
However, already, both "Eurofora" and several other observers had raised Questions about the real Reason for which, suddenly, such a Huge, Top Political Interest was expressed by so many and important Politicians, exceptionaly attracted, all Together, by the present CoE Assembly's Spring 2016 Plenary Session.
This became Crystal-Clear, Earlier Today (Monday) Morning, when CoE Assembly's Bureau, and afterwards the Plenary, officially endorsed an Urgent Debate on that EU - Turkey Deal for Wednesday Afternoon.
The New CoE Assembly's President, Experienced Spanish MEP Pedro Agramunto, former Chairman of the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group, the Biggest in PACE, has already Started, since January 2016, to show a keen political Will to "Surprize", at the beginning of each Plenary Session, by making several Important Changes to the Draft Agenda, on the most Crucial a,nd Topical Issues, (Comp., f.ex., also : .....)
Unlike EU Parliament's only Oral Debates, last week in Strasbourg, about both the latest general EU Summit in Brussels, and that EU - Turkey Deal, on the Contrary, CoE's PanEuropean Organisation, (which holds an official Mandate, given at the Highest Political level of Heads of State/Governments' Summit; for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law), decided to hold also a Specific Debate focused on the EU - Turkey Deal, as well as to prepare a written Report, with a Resolution due to be Voted Wednesday Afternoon.
Meanwhile, probably Crucial Amendments are to be Tabled 1 Day before, i.e. until Tuesday Evening, included, on that Report which is due to be adopted by the Competent Committee (on Migration) Earlier on Tuesday Morning/Noon, (i.e. during Juncker's and Davutoglou's successive Visits : Comp. Supra).
And Juncker is a Key Personality also for EU - CoE relations, since he had got an official Mandate by CoE's PanEuropean Heads of State/Government Summit, back on 2004 in Warsaw, (Comp. "Eurofora" co-Founders' NewsReports from the spot, published then at "TCWeekly"), to make an Original Study with concrete Proposals on the Future PanEuropean Architecture and EU CoE roles, (Comp. also Juncker's Replies to 3urofora" Questions during his Press Connference at the CoE in Strasbourg, when he had presented, some years ago, his Report's main Conclusions).
This week's forthcoming Political developments will obviously be also a Test of the EU - CoE possible relations in a fully functioning European Institutional Architecture. And CoE might, eventualy, give to the EU a Chance to at least Rectify, sooner or later, in one way or another, some otherwise notoriously Thorny points, earlier conceded under obvious Pressure (some denounced a "Blackmail", or that "EU was Hostage to Turkey", etc) by Ankara's controversial regime.
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They voted to "freeze" UK Government's draft to put People in jail for 42 Days on "anti-terrorist" suspicion without charge, or they abstained. Don't they look suspect ?
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CoE's debate on UK controversy stirs PanEuropean check of anti-terror suspects' imprisonment
Former Leftists of the Sixties would boil in hot water if they heard PACE's debate on the controversial 42 days detention without charge, currently drafted by the British Government :
A "Socialist" Government, a Socialist PACE Rapporteur and a Socialist Chair of PACE's Legal Committee, opposed a .. "Conservative" amendment (supported by .. Liberals, Democrats, etc), to freeze the measure, in order to protect Citizens' Freedom, by "waiting" until CoE's Venice Committee checks its conformity with Human Rights' principles.
"Left"'s support to Conservative-Lib.Dem's criticism, wasn't enough to obtain a majority, nor to make things as they were back in the good old days, when "Left" and "Right" had a clear meaning, as "liberty" and "restrictions"...
Conservatives and most Democrats were joined by the Left in voting for the "freeze", as well as Liberal Paul Rowen, while Socialist MEP Ivan Popescu, an experienced MEP from Ukraine (PACE Member since 1996-2008) abstained. But most Socialists, added to a few Liberals and EPP's Right, voted against.
Fortunately, someone inside PACE had the wise idea to shorten the Debate for less than 1 Hour, and put it on the Agenda only at the end of an exceptionally busy day, towards the end of the Evening, when most MEPs had already gone to taste wins and foods at various Receptions all around Strasbourg's "European" area : As a result, not even 42 MEPs weren't present..
Socialist Lord Tomlinson accused the leaders of the PanEuropean Assembly, in its highest body : the "Bureau", to "lack wisdom" by deciding to hold a Debate on an issue that neither the Socialist Chair of the Legal Committee, nor its Socialist "reluctant Rapporteur", did "not want to do", ...
Finally, everybody (critics and supporters alike) was happy to agree, in substance, that the controversial measure "may" gravely violate Human Rights, and therefore, PACE asked Legal Experts of Venice Commission to check UK Government''s plans.
But this might take more than .. 42 Days to do, since PACE's Rapporteur asked the Experts to enlarge their study in a PanEuropean comparison of all that is happening on "anti-terrorism" legislation in 47 CoE Member Countries, including Russia, Turkey and Azerbaidjan..
Bad lack : "The existing 28 days’ detention without charge in the UK is, in comparison with other CoE member countries, one of the most extreme : In Turkey, the period is 7,5 days, in France 6 days, in Russia 5 days, and in .. the U.S. and Canada just 2 and 1 days respectively", denounced Democrat MEP Ms WOLDSETH from Norway..
"Numerous respected human rights organisations, including Liberty and Human Rights Watch, have expressed serious concern" "The proposed legislation ...could easily lead to extensive abuses. ...Detention for 42 days means six weeks in which one is taken away from one’s family, friends, home and livelihood only to be let off without being charged. That will destroy lives and isolate communities", she added.
- "3 years ago, the UK Government sought to increase the period of pre-charge detention from 14 days to 90 days. Not long before that, it had been only 7 days. There was a vigorous debate ...and a ...compromise was reached of 28 days. We have to ask whether there are proper safeguards in place to extend the period to 42 days. I suggest that there are fatal flaws", reminded British Conservative Clappison.
- "What sort of society holds someone in detention for 42 days and does not have to tell the person who is in prison why they are there, or explain the suspicions that arose and led to their detention? What sort of society believes that that is the way to treat its citizens? That is an appalling injustice, ...A 42-day detention period will not make the UK safer. Instead, it will be the first step to giving in to terrorists; it is saying that we are prepared to sacrifice our democratic rights and the principles for which we have stood for centuries", criticized British Liberal Michael Hanckock
"Comments made ...by Norwegian delegates are unfortunate", replied British Socialist MEP Ms.Curtis-Thomas, accusing them to "besmirch the reputation of our police force, which is one of the Best in the World", as she said, believing that "there are significant safeguards ...to ensure that individuals are not subjected to unlawful detention"
PACE "has serious doubts whether ...the draft legislation are in conformity with the ...case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. A lack of ..safeguards may lead to arbitrariness, resulting in breaches of ... liberty and ...right to a fair trial". PACE "is particularly concerned that: ..the judge ..may not be in a position to examine whether there exist reasonable grounds for suspecting that the arrested person has committed an offence;"; that "... representation by a lawyer may be inappropriately restricted or delayed;" that "information on the grounds for suspicion of a person ...may be unduly withheld.. ;" that this "may give rise to arrests without the intention to charge;", and; in general, that "prolonged detention without proper information on the grounds for arrest may constitute inhuman treatment", says Klaus De Vries' Report, adopted with 29 votes against zero.
Records don't say if it took him 42 Days to draft his Report, but, at least, he knew why...