Stepping up rights

Ensuring the rights of citizens charged with a criminal offence in fair trials, prisons’ conditions, equal treatment of European and third country migrants working legally in the EU, free circulation of Romanian and Bulgarian workers. The European Parliament, during the past plenary session before the Christmas holidays (Strasbourg December 12-15) focused on a set of concrete measures regarding human rights. The EP also voted on EU funding to areas hit by natural disasters and to redundant workers who lost their job because of the ongoing crisis. The rights of suspects. MEPs gave the green light to a directive ensuring that anyone suspected or accused of having committed a crime in the EU would have to be promptly informed of his or her procedural rights “in easy-to-understand language” by means of a written “letter of rights”. Any person suspected or accused of having committed a crime must have the right of access to a lawyer, the right to urgent medical care and the right to contact relatives. He has also the right to remain silent before the authorities. “The approval of the letter of rights is important in ensuring that suspected and accused persons are granted a fair trial when being involved in criminal proceedings in their home country or in another EU Member “, said Civil Liberties Committee rapporteur, Birgit Sippel (S&D, DE). “It will improve the rights of suspects and accused persons, by ensuring that they receive comprehensive information about their rights” she added. The situation in prisons. The EP also called for “urgent measures” “to remedy the alarming situation” of European prisons. In a resolution the Assembly asks the Commission to present a legislative initiative “to safeguard the rights of people who have been stripped of their freedom and to set minimum common standards on the condition of detainees along with the reimbursement to people unjustly detained or sentenced to prison”. MEPs highlighted severe problems such as overcrowding and the detention rates of non-EU nationals along with the length of pre-trial detention, prisoners with mental disorders and suicides. These issues were already stressed in the European Commission’s Green Paper of June 2011. The conditions of detainees – states the resolution – must respect human dignity and the rights of suspects. MEPs also established that “pre-trial detention must be an exceptional measure, to be adopted only in specific circumstances and for a limited amount of time”.Single permit. The EP gave the green light to the directive – marked by complex and long preliminary debates – on “single permits”, whereby Third country migrants working legally within the EU would enjoy comparable rights to those of EU nationals such as decent basic working conditions, the right to access to pensions, social security, employment office services and public housing. The directive – EU Member States have two years to transpose it into their national laws – complements other measures on legal migration, such as the blue card, and is designed to facilitate such migration where it meets the needs of the EU labour market. Following the vote, rapporteur Véronique Mathieu (EPP, FR) commented: “This is the first report on legal migration to be adopted by co-decision. This directive will help to meet the labour needs that Europe will face in coming years and it will allow more effective action against illegal migration”. The new law will also prevent illegal migration and “fraud”, trafficking and black labour. National legislation is also respected from a restrictive angle, provided they comply with community law. “The proposed directive also recognises that all persons working legally in Europe must have the same rights as European workers”, since the directive focuses on “equal treatment”.Romanian and Bulgarian workers. In a resolution the EU Parliament urges EU Member States to lift labour market barriers to Bulgarians and Romanians. “There are no real economic justifications for restricting their fundamental right to work and reside in any EU Member State”, MEPs said. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg Malta, the Netherlands and UK all still restrict the access of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to their labour markets. Spain is also restricting Romanian workers’ access, with the Commission’s approval, until 31 December 2012, due to severe unemployment rates at national level.