Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President, there is some good material in this strategy paper. I fully support one principal theme, and that is the importance of coherence. This is necessary not only across the range of external policies, but also in the form of consistency with our internal record.

Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President, we are told that detention conditions are a national responsibility. It is shocking then that over one third of Member States have not ratified the Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, which establishes a system of inspection visits. We should be ashamed that the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture is having to take an interest.

Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President, I congratulate Ms Sippel as rapporteur for leading us to a successful conclusion and I, as always, welcome the full support and backing of Vice-President Reding.

It is clear that a person who is arrested or questioned is in a vulnerable position and deserves to know their rights and how to apply them, but the quality of information provided is often poor. People often do not understand what rights they have, and this ignorance is exacerbated by being a foreigner and not speaking the local language. A particular need, given that we know that there is discrimination in granting of bail, is to know how to contest pre-trial detention.

Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Madam President, I am privileged to serve as vice-Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the US, under the strong leadership of Elmar Brok. My own knowledge and expertise is principally in the area of justice, human rights and security. Naturally, therefore, I put a great deal of emphasis on the parts of our resolution which stress the shared transatlantic values of liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and also the cooperation we are pursuing to guarantee liberty and security.

Sarah Ludford (ALDE ). - Madam President, the EU has a good story to tell about its work to protect children. Earlier this year in the strengthened law on trafficking, we included a requirement to appoint a guardian for unaccompanied child victims which hopefully will help to stop their disappearance from care back into the clutches of the trafficking gangs.

Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Madam President, I agree with others and particularly the rapporteur, Sophie in't Veld, that this is a much tighter, more focused and stronger agreement than the one in the past. It is a much better agreement because of the role of the European Parliament. I congratulate all those involved in producing an agreement that most of us will be able to vote for, despite some weaknesses. But the strengths include those mentioned: a much tighter purpose definition to limit it to terrorism and serious transnational crime, the fact that it is 'push' only and that the data protection safeguards on rectification and erasure and redress and also the data security provisions are good, with for instance an audit record of all access. So like other speakers I hope that this can become something of a precedent for the other two agreements, and I would draw the attention of the US authorities in particular to this agreement.

Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President, the EU is based on the rule of law; Romania and Bulgaria have passed the Schengen tests. It is unfair and invidious to allow populist nationalism to move the goalposts. Of course we need stricter tests for Schengen participation. In fact it is a disgrace that Member States which insisted on keeping charge of setting the criteria failed to insert anti-corruption, the independence of judges and fighting mafia crime into them. That is what we need to do from now on, so new and existing Schengen members are properly evaluated and, if necessary, sanctioned. But for the time being apply the rules.

Sarah Ludford (ALDE ). - Mr President, I am glad to say that, within the ALDE Group, our representatives on the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs are united in our dissatisfaction with the Commission's implementing regulation, unlike in the two biggest groups where I seem to see some sort of discordance between their TRAN and LIBE arms. But we are united. I thoroughly agree with what Ms Meissner has said and agree with some other people, like Ms Foster for instance from the ECR Group. It does seem to be a major missed opportunity that the Commission has failed to advance best available technology. It may well be that, at the moment, there is only one supplier of stick images but, as has been said, once the regulations are set, you can be absolutely sure that other suppliers will pile into the market.

Sarah Ludford (ALDE ). - Mr President, I too am very pleased that we are having this debate and that the Commission will be represented at the UN summit. I would like to pay tribute to the NCD alliance of NGOs, which has contributed so much to achieving this result. Like others, including the Commissioner, I stress how much we need to make prevention the cornerstone of our approach, together with research on prevention, treatment and also a possible cure.