The European Commission has issued a staff working document entitled "Synthesis of the replies from the Member States to the questionnaire on criminal law, administrative law/procedural law and fundamental rights in the fight against terrorism". The paper draws together existing information from EU Member States on counter-terrorism legislation and fundamental rights.
Today the Commission issued a new Commission staff working document containing a summary of the replies from the Member States to its questionnaire on criminal law, administrative law/procedural law and fundamental rights in the fight against terrorism.
Announcing the new staff working document today, Vice President Jacques Barrot said that, "terrorism remains a serious threat to the political foundations of the European Union as well as to the life and well-being of our citizens”. He underlined that "all efforts to counter-terrorism at international, European and national level must be in line with fundamental rights in order not to endanger the very foundations of democracy and the rule of law that the European Union is built upon. The report is intended to provide factual information which may feed into the debate on counter-terrorism legislation in the EU."
The Commission sent a questionnaire to the authorities of the Member States in December 2007 which was made public on the website of the Commission in April 2008 (http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/terrorism/docs/questionnaire_en.pdf). The questionnaire covered a serie of issues which are central in the field of counter-terrorism and fundamental rights such as : the penalisation of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in different European Union Member states; the way terrorist investigations are conducted and the use of court evidence from sensitive sources; the expulsion of terrorist suspects; the question of parliamentary oversight of national intelligence services as well as the safeguarding of data-protection rules in relation to the fight against terrorism or in connection with counter-terrorism investigations. All 27 Member States replied to the questionnaire.
On this basis, the Commission prepared its synthesis which provides a panoramic overview on the way the investigations into terrorist crimes are conducted and how terrorist suspects are treated by national authorities.