Paris, 20 December 2006 – The WEU Assembly called on Wednesday for counterterrorism legislation in a European framework and for parliamentarians to be closely involved in this process of harmonisation.

Basing itself on a report on “Changing perceptions of terrorism in public opinion and the media”, presented on behalf of the Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations by Lord Burlison (United Kingdom, Federated Group), the Assembly found it regrettable that special laws had already been passed as an emergency measure and parliamentary debates had been held in individual countries without coordinating timetables, thus preventing parliamentarians from taking advantage of useful points of comparison and collective discussion.

The Assembly also deplored that where terrorism was concerned, overexposure in the media often raised public fear and alarm and served to distract those called on to deal with such matters from seeking democratic solutions through the political process.

The Assembly felt that in order to bring in counterterrorist legislation in a European context, national parliaments needed to take steps to develop the sharing of information between countries. Fostering exchanges between parliamentarians and formulating and developing coordinated concepts and solutions were the most effective way of coming up with proposals for more effective legislation for fighting terrorism.

Lastly, the Assembly recommended that national parliaments urge their governments to establish machinery for independent monitoring of their governments’ response to the terrorist threat.