Letter to the European Voice: Shortcircuiting the Legal Process?
November 5, 2009 12:30 PM
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP
There is no room for for informal small groupings such as the G6.
You correctly quoted me ("G6 to discuss ways to combat terrorism", 29 October-4 November) as criticising the meeting this week of the 'G6' group of interior ministers of the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Italy, in that "six governments cutting themselves off from mainstream EU work is inefficient as well as undemocratic".
There is, of course, room in EU affairs for informal small groupings to discuss matters of common interest, but the track record shows that this group is in fact a conduit for reaching decisions intergovernmentally and then, with no meaningful parliamentary input, laundering them through the Brussels machinery to become EU law - as happened in 2005, when seven states signed the Prüm treaty, allowing their police forces to compare and exchange data more easily, and then championed its transformation into a Council of Ministers decision.
It is ironic to note that in its conclusions two years ago - the only G6 document to be found on the website of the present host, the UK Home Office - this little cabal noted that "the European Union Reform Treaty will bring changes to the decision-making process in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice and new co-ordination structures will be established".
They could have added, but chose not to, that these new structures include co-decision powers for the European Parliament on all major law enforcement, anti-terrorism and policing measures.
The G6 is not only perverse in meeting as a secret intergovernmental forum on the eve of the implementation of the Lisbon treaty but in failing to include the key EU officials in its deliberations. Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for justice, and Gilles de Kerchove, the counter-terrorism co-ordinator, did not fail to attend: they were - incredibly - not invited.
To add insult to injury, the US Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, was invited. How can there be any co-ordination if the EU as such is cut out of the deliberations of the self-selected six?
In a further irony, while no agenda, no press release and no papers regarding this meeting are to be found on the UK Home Office website, it piously informs us that "the Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives anybody the right to access information held by public authorities".
Sarah Ludford MEP
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