Here, for the first time, the two men selected to lead the investigation speak to the Parliament's website. They are Claudio Fava, an Italian Socialist MEP, who will draft the committee's report (the "Rapporteur") and Carlos Coelho, a Portuguese Conservative MEP, the Committee Chairman.
1. What is the purpose of the committee?
Carlos Coelho: There are four questions that will guide our work: Firstly, we must deal with the facts. Secondly, if these activities did take place, to what extent did they take place. Thirdly, we must establish if European Union citizens were victims or whether they were in any way complicit. Finally, we must establish if officials of EU members were complicit by action or omission.
Claudio Fava: The institutional purpose of our committee is to seek truth: i.e. to ascertain whether any secret CIA detention centres were established in European territory, and whether any governments of Member or Candidate countries cooperated in the practice of “extraordinary renditions”. There is also a political objective....to reassert the pivotal role of human rights and give priority to their protection, also in the fight against international terrorism.
2. How will the committee investigate the allegations?
Carlos Coelho: Our role is to listen to witnesses, victims and experts. We have involved the European Institutions (European Commission, European Council) from the start and have also written to all 25 member states of the Union asking for cooperation. We will examine all available documentation and analyse what we find.
Claudio Fava: The committee will operate on an institutional level, requesting collaboration firstly of the governments of EU and candidate countries. But it will be even more important to operate on a non-institutional level, to collect evidence, facts, witness accounts. As to this aspect, the statements made by victims will be crucial: those European and foreign citizens who have suffered first hand the practice of “extraordinary renditions”, detention, torture… The first victim that we will hear, on Monday 13 March in Strasbourg, will be Khaled El Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin, who was abducted at Skopje by CIA agents, detained and tortured for five months, and finally released, without being charged with any crime.
3. Are you going to ask someone from the CIA to appear before the committee?
Carlos Coelho: I am not so naive to imagine that cooperation from third countries will be the same as it will be within the European Union. We must establish an EU position on this before we take it further.
Claudio Fava: We shall ask CIA Director Peter Goss to take part in a hearing. But we are also inviting former CIA officials to chart the switch of strategy by US intelligence after September 11, especially as regards “extraordinary renditions” and the “black sites” in Europe.
4: If European countries are found to have participated - what action should be taken against them?
Carlos Coelho: As Chairman I should not anticipate the conclusions or make threatening remarks in advance. We must also realise that there are different kinds of knowledge and complicity. Knowing during the fact is significantly different from knowing after the fact. Regardless of the domestic political consequences, as Franco Frattini, European Commission for Justice and Security has already said, if the allegations were true that would amount to a violation of Article 6 of the EU Treaty. They would also constitute a violation of the European Convention on human rights and the Charter of Fundamental rights. However, at this stage it is too early to anticipate - we should make recommendations later.
Claudio Fava: Articles 6 and 7 of the Treaties foresee the possibility of proposing to the Council various degrees of sanctions against Member States, right up to suspension of their right to vote.
5. If the allegations (about illegal flights and detention centres) are found to be true, what implications will they have for EU-US relations?
Carlos Coelho: We have a grown-up relationship with the US, we have the same values, the same belief in democracy and common strategic interests. But sometimes we have not been friends, such as in some aspects of the World Trade Organisation negotiations for example - and of course these differences can appear in other ways.
Claudio Fava: I believe it will be useful to redefine, in EU-US, relations, the greatest collaboration in the fight against terror together with the greatest respect of human dignity and fundamental rights. Europe...has built its history and civilisation without ever selling out its principles in the face of any emergency. The rejection of torture, and respect of ”habeas corpus” - the guarantee of essential legal rights for all detainees, regardless of their crimes, are non-negotiable values for Europe.
For further information about the work of the committee please see the links below.
