The EU Must not Take Power over Justice and Home Affairs Policy
Wednesday 27 September 2006
Today in the European Parliament, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, urged the EU to abandon the attempt to harmonise member states' law when facing the terrorist and illegal immigration threat. He called for governments not to pass the buck onto the EU to disguise their own policy failures.
Mr Kirkhope said:
"Conservatives oppose a single model of justice for countries whose different legal systems have evolved in their own ways over centuries.
"Mutual recognition of our differing legal traditions not harmonisation is the way forward in an EU of 25 member states.
"We must recognise, not replace, the many legal systems of the EU.
"What is needed is what will bring practical results, not idealised theoretical structures. For this reason the dream of a Euro-Home Office is a sideshow that is not just self-defeating, but is ultimately harmful if it stifles effective cooperation between the Member States for the benefit of our citizens."
ENDS
