Sarah speaks to the European Parliament about the Stockholm programme and the rights of individuals in criminal proceedings (Newham Borough Liberal Democrats)

Newham Borough Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Sarah speaks to the European Parliament about the Stockholm programme and the rights of individuals in criminal proceedings

May 18, 2010 3:00 PM
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP

Madam President, for me the best bit of the action plan is the list of five concrete measures regarding rights of the individual in criminal proceedings that comprise the road map endorsed by the Stockholm Programme.

I speak as rapporteur on the first of these measures on interpretation and translation for defendants on which, I am pleased to say, I reached provisional agreement with the Spanish Presidency this very morning and I hope that our respective institutions will endorse that result.

I do thank Commissioner Reding for her staunch support as we drew solidly on the Commission proposal and Commission representatives made a full contribution, so my personal thanks to her.

We are finally, a decade overdue, but finally building the mutual trust necessary for mutual recognition. My support for the European arrest warrant is qualified by my dismay and indeed anger at some miscarriages of justice and the way it currently operates such as in the cases of Gary Mann and Andrew Symeou that I am involved in. If we had these measures in place a decade ago I believe those miscarriages of justice would not be happening.