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MEP launches Euro-campaign against 'Mosquito' devices
Sarah Ludford, 7 May 2008
Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has today launched a campaign in the European Parliament to ban Mosquito devices used to disperse allegedly troublesome teenagers. Using technology originally designed to scare away vermin, the 'Mosquito' emits a very high frequency buzzing sound which supposedly cannot be heard by people over the age of 25. In the UK, 3,500 have been deployed, often by shops.
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Safeguards needed on DNA sharing in Europe
Sarah Ludford, 21 April 2008
Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has called for EU exchanges of data between police forces to be limited so that the DNA data of innocent British people is not circulated across Europe.
Speaking ahead of a vote in the European Parliament in a debate about the 'Prum Treaty' which is set to become law, Sarah Ludford said:
"I am all in favour of reducing unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to exchanges of police data among EU law enforcement agencies. But I am totally against the supply to 26 countries - and potentially across the world - of the DNA of innocent people including children.
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Petition launched against US discrimination
Sarah Ludford, 14 April 2008
Liberal MEPs Sarah Ludford (UK, Lib Dem) and Sophie In't Veld (Netherlands, D66) have launched an on-line petition protesting against the issue of US refusal, dating from 1993, to extend its Visa Waiver programme to people with HIV. The US maintains that they are a threat to public health but the European Commission has affirmed that there is no objective reason for this stance.
Commenting, Sarah Ludford said: "The greater the number of people who support the call to end this unfair discrimination, the less the problem can be ignored by European policy-makers. The persistence of the travel ban just feeds prejudice and ignorance.
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BAE judgement: Wake-up calls to EU on crime and corruption
Sarah Ludford, 10 April 2008
A UK High Court judgement condemning the Blair government's blocking of a corruption probe into alleged bribes paid to Saudi royals by arms firm BAE has been welcomed by Liberal Democrat European Justice Spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP. It comes as the European Parliament voted a report noting the 'in some cases unacceptably high level of corruption' in candidate country Croatia and just after the EU Council warned Bulgaria under threat of sanctions to act against organised crime and gangland killings.
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Increased EU investment in Iraq must be priority for stability of region
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, 13 March 2008
The European Parliament is set to pass a report that urges greater EU involvement and investment in Iraq. Moreover, the report welcomes the work already done by the EU in Iraq and the EUR850m the European Commission alone has invested. The suggestions made in the report are part of a recommendation to the European Council on the EU's role in Iraq.
ALDE Shadow Rapporteur on the report, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (UK, Lib Dem), who is also chair of the European Parliament's delegation to Iraq and was the first non-Iraqi parliamentarian to address the Iraqi Parliament, said:
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EU needs to play hardball with US on privacy guarantees before data exchange
Sarah Ludford, 13 March 2008
Following the fiasco of the Czech government agreeing bilaterally to supply more data on travellers - even possibly from EU databases - to secure US 'visa waiver' for its nationals, the Commission is hastily requesting the Council to give it a mandate for an overall EU-US deal involving visa waiver for citizens of all 27 states. This is bound to involve more demands for personal information.
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EU should challenge US on visa rights for travellers with HIV
Sarah Ludford, 12 March 2008
On the eve of an EU-US ministerial meeting on justice and security tomorrow which will major on transatlantic visa matters, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat European Justice and Human Rights Spokeswoman, has demanded that the EU side should include in the negotiations the issue of US refusal, dating from 1993, to extend its Visa Waiver programme to people with HIV. The US maintains that they are a threat to public health but the European Commission has affirmed that there is no objective reason for this stance.
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Call to end "pass the parcel" on asylum seekers like Mehdi Kazemi
Sarah Ludford, 12 March 2008
Ahead of a vote in the European Parliament tomorrow on an urgency resolution she has co-sponsored calling for Iranian gay teenager Mehdi Kazemi not to be sent back by the UK to Iran, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat European Justice and Human Rights Spokeswoman and member of the European Parliament's Gay and Lesbian Intergroup, has called for an end to the shameful shuffling of gay and other asylum-seekers between EU countries:
"Almost a decade ago, EU leaders gave a pledge that they would have a common asylum system which fully respected the UN Refugee Convention 'thus ensuring that nobody is sent back to persecution'. They have broken every one of those promises.
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Terror victims' best protection is the rule of law
Sarah Ludford, 11 March 2008
Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP commented:
"The victims of the despicable crime of terrorism deserve every support, and it is a shame on our society that they do not always get it promptly, whether in rehabilitation or compensation. As MEP for London, the July 5th 2005 tube and bus bomb victims are rarely far from my thoughts as I travel round my city.
"The firm upholding of the rule of law is not only the best riposte to terrorists who would destroy it, it is also the best practical protection against creating new waves of terrorism. The US-led but Europe-facilitated 'war on terror' which has sanctioned illegal torture and disappearances can only prolong the likelihood of new terrorists and new victims."
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Strasbourg court rejects UK claims on deportation to torture risk
Sarah Ludford, 28 February 2008
In a highly significant judgement today in the case of Saadi, a Tunisian man that Italy wanted to deport, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously rejected the claims of the Italian and British governments that persons can be deported to countries which have a record of torture on the basis of 'diplomatic assurances' that they will not be harmed.
The court described as 'misconceived' the UK government's argument that the risk to the individual could be balanced against the risk he posed and instead upheld the absolute nature of the prohibition against sending persons suspected of involvement in terrorism to countries where they face a real risk of torture.
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Guantanamo prisoners must not be trapped by inaction
Sarah Ludford, 28 February 2008
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, European Justice Spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, who is a vice-chair of the Human Rights subcommittee and originally proposed the hearing, commented:
"Today's hearing will highlight the shocking 6-year failure by the United States to respect the rule of law by continuing the use of kangaroo courts and holding hundreds of detainees in a legal blackhole. While the Supreme Court may again uphold the right to habeas corpus and the illegality of arbitrary detention, for the prisoners 'justice delayed is justice denied'. In the meantime, many are suffering cruel ill-treatment and even torture.
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Criminalising 'thought crimes' obstructs fight against terrorism
Sarah Ludford, 19 February 2008
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, European Justice Spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, commenting on efforts to make 'glorification' of or 'apology for' terrorism criminal offences in themselves in a European Parliament report on radicalisation and recruitment for terrorism, said:
"We have been round this circuit before in UK legislation and it does not work. There is firstly a chilling effect on free speech in discussing conflict situations or 'liberation struggles' like Nelson Mandela and the ANC. But also the law may prove ineffective and subject to mockery if convictions for 'thought crimes' are unsustainable.
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Fondamental Rights Agency Must Seek Effective Role
Sarah Ludford, 15 January 2008
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, European Justice Spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats said: "The Fundamental Rights Agency has a valuable role to play in reassuring citizens that EU institutions and governments will uphold human rights when they implement EU law".
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Historic opening of EU borders must not result in creating new ones
Commenting ahead of tomorrow's historic lifting of border controls to the new Member States of the European Union, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson and European Parliament rapporteur on the Visa Information System, said:
“This is a historic moment for the border-free travel zone to expand to central and eastern European EU states, marking the definitive end to the Cold War division of Europe. There will have to be ongoing efforts to make external borders secure, whilst avoiding a ‘Fortress Europe'."
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European court rejects UK bid to opt in to EU borders projects
Sarah Ludford, 18 December 2007
The European Court of Justice, the EU's court, has rejected a UK bid to 'opt in' to EU measures on an external borders agency and on passport technical standards. It has said that the UK cannot pick and choose which 'Schengen zone' measures to sign up to if it refuses to be part of the whole project.
Liberal Democrat European Justice Spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, commented:
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EU charter: Liberal leade condemns extremist parliamentary hooligans
Graham Watson, 12 December 2007
Following attempts by British and Polish extremist MEPs to wreck formal proceedings in the European Parliament today at the proclamation ceremony for the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Graham Watson MEP, leader of the European Parliament's Liberals and Democrats condemned them as 'hooligans':
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EU must check legality of Italian expulsions
Sarah Ludford, 5 November 2007
The Liberal Democrats' European Justice Spokeswoman, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, is calling on EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini, a former Italian minister, to check whether the Italian government is in conformity with EU law in its expulsions of Romanian citizens. Commenting, she said:
"Commissioner Frattini was last week said to regard the Italian expulsions as legal. But if the latest press reports of immediate expulsion without appeal are true, this would certainly breach EU law."
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