Sophie in 't Veld spricht Klartext

I’m sorry, this is a democracy, this is the 21st century, and we all know that the public authorities mean well, but people aren’t safe, people should have proper means of redress. That’s really elementary. Secondly, US authorities have really given us very little reason to trust them blindfolded. The previous PNR agreement has been, to put it mildly, implemented in a ‘less-than-satisfactory’ manner. There were all these things that the Americans promised, but the only guarantee seemed to be ‘Scout’s honour’!.

The Americans have not lived up to their promises, that’s very obvious; for example, there was the issue of ‘purpose limitation’. The agreement’s undertakings state that passenger data can only be used for the fight against terrorism and related crime. However, in reality it turns out that it is being used for other purposes.

There’s also the case of SWIFT [bank-transfer data]. Why do we have to find out five years into the war against terror that our bank accounts are being monitored, why didn’t anybody tell us about this?

Is this the way that allies behave? Spying on each other in secret? The CIA flights, the rendition flights, secret detention camps, these don’t really inspire much confidence, either. I’m sorry, but it creates an image of American authorities who feel that they are above the law. And this is not anti-Americanism, because, let’s face it, opposition is growing within the US as well.

What’s important here is that we do not have our own policies in Europe, and for what we do have there is no parliamentary scrutiny. This agreement will now be put before national parliaments, but how many do you think will have the guts to say ‘No, this leaves citizens unprotected, it leaves the airlines in legal limbo’? They can’t say ‘No’ anymore, and the European Parliament has not been involved.

This is a very undesirable situation, and it’s not just about PNR. We do not speak with one voice, but national governments are selling their electorate the illusion of national sovereignty. Give me a break! Terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon, but we see today that policies are not made in national capitals, nor are they made in Brussels, they are made in Washington.

Zur aktuellen Debatte über die Weitergabe von personenbezogenen Daten an die USA zur Vermeidung von Terroranschlägen kritisierte die niederländische Abgeordnete Sophie in’t Veld (Allianz der Liberalen und Demokraten für Europa, ALDE), dass "es keine angemessenen Garantien bei der Datenweitergabe an Drittstaaten" gebe.

"Wir müssen unsere eigenen Regeln formulieren, statt sie uns von anderen aufdrängen zu lassen. Die parlamentarische Kontrolle muss verbessert werden". Sie kritisierte, dass das Europaparlament im Vorfeld keinen inhaltlichen Einfluss auf die Übereinkunft mit dem USA zur Weitergabe von Flugpassagierdaten gehabt habe, die vom Europäischen Gerichtshof – auf Antrag des Europaparlaments – im Mai zu Fall gebracht worden war und daraufhin neu verhandelt werden musste.