EP CIA committee concludes visit to Romania

10.50.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 19th Oct 2006

Commenting on the visit to Romania this week of a delegation from the European Parliament's temporary committee on alleged extraordinary rendition practices operated by the CIA in Europe, the committee's vice-chair Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP said:

"I am grateful for the cooperative attitude our delegation encountered in Bucharest. I congratulate the Romanian parliament on being one of only two national parliaments in Europe - the other is the German Bundestag - which has reflected the seriousness of the allegations concerning their country by a decision to set up a special enquiry, in Romania's case under the chairmanship of Liberal (PNL) Senator Norica Nicolai."

"However, I feel strongly that the Senate enquiry's preliminary conclusions, which were categorical in dismissing any possibility that detainees could have been held in Romania or transported on flights using Romanian airports, need re-examination in the light of further aspects which MEPs discussed in Bucharest."

"I urge Senator Nicolai and her colleagues to continue to be in the forefront of efforts to exercise European democratic accountability by looking again at elements such as the comments of former Defence Minister Pascu that parts of one airport were 'off-limits' to Romanians, the case of the Gulfstream 4 which crash-landed in December 2004 after failing to file a flightplan with Eurocontrol and whose 7 passengers included one armed man, the claim by an Afghan national in an Arte TV programme that he was held in Romania, and the statement by President Bush on September 6th admitting to secret prisons."

"Romania is on the brink of EU membership, which I and the whole ALDE group applaud. Pursuing the truth about what may have happened in the past in the context of close US-Romania ties can only reinforce Romania's European credentials now."