The plenary session of the European Parliament (EP) held at Strasbourg from 12 to 15 November adopted a series of resolutions and reports relating to the measures proposed by some member States in the fields of justice and internal affairs aimed at improving the EU policy of combating international terrorism. In particular, the Assembly approved the Report presented by the Italian MEP Turco (TDI) concerning the role of Europol, the police force common to the Fifteen, in tackling the gravest forms of international criminality and the transmission of personal data. The report expresses the hope that the Council may clearly define the priority areas of Europol’s action on the basis of a permanent and decentralized survey of the data on international criminality relating to all the territories of the member States conducted jointly by Governments and by Europol. The EP also approved the Report presented by Mr Kirkhope (PPE, United Kingdom) which welcomes the proposal of the Belgian Presidency to set up joint investigative teams in implementation of the European Convention relating to judicial assistance in penal matters of 29/5/2000. In conformity with the existing international instruments for the protection of human rights and the safeguard of fundamental liberties, the framework decision ought to make it possible for the authorities or two or more member States to set up joint teams with a view to conducting investigations and enquiries. The plenary assembly lastly approved the Report presented by Mr Marinho (PSE, Portugal) on the simplified extradition procedure between member States of the European Union. In this regard, it is hoped that the ratification of the 1995 Convention may represent a development of the provisions of the Schengen Treaty, since the recent terrorist attacks will probably lead to procedures of simple cross-border recognition of judicial sentences and hence to the transfer of individuals who have committed crimes, without any need for extradition.
