During a special debate on the US Senate report on the CIA detention and torture programme, European governments were fiercely attacked by S&D Group MEPs who called on the relevant national authorities to thoroughly investigate and start criminal actions against the senior officials involved in the scandal.
S&D Vice-President Tanja Fajon said:
"Seven years have passed since the European Parliament started its investigation and issued recommendations to the EU member states and institutions, but nothing has happened and none of them have been taken up.
"The medieval-style interrogation and torture methods used by the CIA are shameful, immoral and unacceptable wherever and whenever they occur. The complicity of individual EU countries in such atrocities is disgraceful and dishonourable for any democracy as well as going entirely against the values and principles the EU is based upon.
"Those responsible should be held accountable. We demand a full investigation and clear answers from EU member states. We demand measures to guarantee effective oversight of the intelligence services and their activities. And we demand measures to guarantee that something similar can never happen again in Europe."
Birgit Sippel MEP, S&D spokesperson on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, said:
"EU member states can no longer pretend not to have known about the brutal atrocities that were committed by the CIA on EU territory. With the help of some EU member states, the CIA has put in place a terror regime that in no way differs from what extremists around the world are doing: torturing and subjecting human beings to degrading treatment with the sole purpose of exercising power.
"The European Parliament has been calling for a proper investigation into member states' involvement for almost a decade. We expect member states to thoroughly investigate these allegations and to start criminal proceedings against the people responsible.
"The US Senate report clearly shows that torture is ineffective in the prevention and prosecution of terrorist attacks. But the main reason why we have to condemn such practices is that they call into question the very basis of our European values: the respect for human dignity. This is why there can never be any justification for torture under international law."
