Ministers back Europe-wide arrest warrants

War on Terrorism: Security

European justice and interior ministers reached an outline agreement yesterday on plans to introduce sweeping anti-terror laws at breakneck speed, despite objections from civil liberties groups.

The German Justice Minister, Hansjoerg Geiger, said the ministers had "broadly reached a solution" on plans for a Europe-wide arrest warrant that would remove the need for extradition proceedings within the European Union.

Under the deal, which is due to be agreed next month, EU member states would have to hand over a suspect from detention within 60 days of receiving an arrest warrant from a fellow EU member state, or within 10 days if the suspect agreed to be transferred. The only formality that would have to take place would be to confirm the identity.

The original idea was for the plan to apply to all offences for which the penalty is at least one year in prison, but that was watered down slightly after objections from several countries.

Instead, ministers gave informal approval to a list of 29 offences, ranging from terrorism and murder to racism and paedophilia, for which the arrest warrant system would apply. For other crimes, the warrant system may still apply, although governments will be able to opt out in some cases, particularly for offences that are not crimes in both the countries concerned.

The introduction of this concession was designed to help allay concerns over the fact that some nations criminalise euthanasia and abortion while others do not.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, argued for the original, tougher proposals and called on other member states not to allow any further dilution of the proposals. Mr Blunkett said: "Once agreed, these instruments will make an historic improvement to our ability to extradite and prosecute terrorists anywhere in the EU. They must be agreed rapidly."

But the plans have been greeted with alarm by campaigners who object to the wide scope of the measures. Mark Littlewood, the director of campaigns for Liberty, the civil rights organisation, said: "Under the pretext of counter-terrorism the EU is bringing in measures which will undermine civil liberties while doing nothing to tackle terrorism."

The arrest warrant is a long-standing proposal from the European Commission, but one that was making little progress before 11 September. Now, with the backing of the UK, the commission and the Belgian presidency of the EU are pushing hard to get a package of measures agreed by 6 December. If that is achieved, it will be the most dramatic change seen in European co-operation on justice and home affairs.

The package of measures being discussed by European ministers also includes moves to a common definition of terrorism and a European agreement that would move sentencing policy closer. A majority of EU member states has no specific legislation on terrorism, and regulations about the investigation of terrorist suspects vary widely.

Here, civil liberties groups are concerned, however, that the anti-terror laws may apply to the activities by anti-globalisation groups, trade unions or people exercising their constitutional right to protest.

Their alarm has been heightened by the British Government's move to suspend part of the European Convention on Human Rights so that foreign terrorist suspects can be interned without trial.

The Government's proposed legislation was heavily criticised yesterday by an influential committee of MPs and peers.

The all-party Joint Committee on Human Rights warned that the controversial anti-terrorism Bill was being rushed through Parliament and might not be justified by the current international situation.

A 20-page report, produced after the Bill was published on Tuesday, said: "Careful consideration is not aided by the decision to push a Bill of this complexity through Parliament at such breakneck speed. Too many ill-conceived measures litter the statute book."