State of emergency in France debated in Civil Liberties Committee

Whilst France is indeed grappling with a difficult security situation, it needs to find adequate long-term solutions, because the terrorist threat is likely to last, argued most MEPs in a Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee debate on Thursday with Ambassador and France’s Permanent representative to the EU Pierre Sellal.

”The state of emergency is not a political expedient, but a legal situation in which the law confers upon the administrative authority additional prerogatives and possibilities to act. It is inspired by the logic of prevention”, said Mr Sellal, underlining that the state of emergency is subject to a triple check, ”legislative, judicial and parliamentary”, against excesses.

”The President of the Republic has said clearly that the state of emergency is not meant to be permanent. It is hard to dispute that sadly, France continues to be a priority target for terrorists, particularly jihadists”, he added.

MEPs hoped that the French experience would stimulate reflection allowing sustainable measures, other than exceptions to the state of law which cannot be an end in themselves, and warned against the impact that they have on society.

Video recording of the debate available

REF. : 20160616IPR32492