Today, the European Union has taken an important step towards the further strengthening of the trade rules applicable to goods that could be used for capital punishment or torture.
On the proposal of the European Commission, the European Parliament has today approved newrestrictions on certain services and revised rules on goods that could be used to apply the death penalty.
“Today’s vote in the European Parliament underscores the importance the European Union attaches to respect for fundamental rights. As the European Union, we promote the global abolition of the death penalty with all the means, tools and instruments that are available to us”, said the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini. “The eradication of torture as well as the abolition of the death penalty requires political will and a joint effort of parliaments and civil society across the world. Today we are demonstrating that our European Union has always been and will remain at the frontline of this work”, she added.
“We can never accept loopholes that allow instruments of death and torture to be traded or promoted”, said EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, adding: “From lethal drug injection systems to electric chairs or spiked batons, such terrible devices have no place in our societies. In addition to prohibiting sales and exports, we are now banning the promotion of these goods at fairs and exhibitions, and introducing a fast-track mechanism to make sure that new products of this kind can be banned quickly. It’s imperative that we can keep up with new developments.”
The European Union adopted a Regulation to ban trade in certain goods which can only be used for capital punishment or torture and to impose export controls on goods that could be used to these ends already in 2005. In January 2014, the European Commission made a proposal to amend this legislation to further strengthen these rules. Following discussions both with and within the Council and the European Parliament, an agreement was reached within a trilogue. Following today’s vote in the Parliament, the changes should now be approved by the Council and then the text amending the original Regulation (1236/2005) will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and become Union law.
