Watson (ELDR). – Mr President, all eyes are on efforts to agree a Constitutional Treaty before the year is out. The irony of our leaders making new rules for the European Union only days after breaking the Stability Pact will not be lost on our citizens. At the same time, we look to the European Council to shoulder its responsibility, to stand up for the rights of European citizens who continue to be held in Guantanamo Bay.

In Naples, our Foreign Ministers managed to move closer to agreement only by moving further away from the Convention text. My group regrets that the tide of reform will not now rise to the high water mark set by the Convention.

The Convention's extension of codecision to budgetary powers would have made the European Union more accountable and transparent. No viable parliamentary democracy can exist without the power of the purse. The obduracy of finance ministers on this matter is a battle pitting raw politics against the principle of reform. I welcome the remarks of the President of the Commission. We must not cede on this point.

We also have to resolve the issue of voting weights so that the efficiency and accountability gains promised by the Convention are not entirely lost.

To us, what really killed the Stability Pact was certain countries confusing their power to break the law with the right to do so. In Guantanamo Bay, the United States has fallen victim to the same confusion.

America was founded on the principle that the free are governed by laws, not men. Countries have borders, but principles do not. There is no line on a map beyond which such values no longer hold. The prison at Guantanamo Bay squanders a precious American legacy and surrenders vital high ground.

For two years the 660 men and boys in Camp Delta have been denied the rights of prisoners of war or of civilian criminals. They have been charged with no crimes. The military commissions that will judge them will grant no right of appeal and no access to an effective defence. Dostoyevsky once wrote: 'You can only know the nature of a civilisation by visiting its prisons'. Of all the tests that a civilisation can be handed, the responsible use of power over the powerless is the greatest. Sadly, the standards of detention and justice at Guantanamo Bay are unworthy of a country with America's proud history of civil liberties.
(Applause)

While I welcome the news that some detainees may shortly be repatriated, winning a reprieve from this disgrace for a few Australians and a few Europeans renders more stark the injustice committed to those who will be left behind. Europe must press for every man and boy in Guantanamo Bay to be either immediately charged, face justice in their home country or be released, regardless of nationality. President-in-Office, I hope that will be high on your agenda.

I call upon this House to demand of the European Council an unequivocal statement of Europe's dismay, and I call upon our President to convey that message. I call upon the European Union’s leaders to ensure that bilateral deals do not silence Europe on the greater principles at stake. The Liberal Group adds its support to calls for the European Parliament and for the Council to submit an Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court on behalf of the detainees.

Two of our greatest enemies in the fight against terror are the fear that makes us cheapen our freedoms and the power that makes us cynical of them. If you at the Council can find the will to do justice to our enemy, then we will already have won.
(Applause)