BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Union expressed reservations Thursday about hosting Guantanamo inmates until the United States addresses EU security concerns, with no decision on accepting them likely for months.
A high-level EU delegation will travel to Washington on March 16-17 to find out exactly how US authorities decided that around 60 of the more than 240 prisoners could be released and why they cannot be hosted by the United States.
"Our objective when going to the US is not negotiations, but an exchange of information and receiving more information," said Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
"Only after we have enough information, that we will circulate to member states, only then can a decision be taken," he said, after hosting talks between his EU counterparts in Brussels.
The EU's anti-terror tsar Gilles de Kerchove said that the whole process "could take three or four months, at least I would say."
EU nations have welcomed President Barack Obama's decision to close the detention centre at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and are keen to help Washington do so.
However, due to widely differing laws among the 27 EU countries, they are struggling to define a common position on how best to help.
Under plans circulated here Thursday, once Washington requests help from the EU, individual countries could host prisoners under national laws provided they accept security restrictions imposed by their partners.
Many nations are deeply concerned at the idea of having people who pose a potential security risk at large in the 25-nation Schengen no-borders area.
"If they are innocent, why are they still in Guantanamo and secondly, why can't they stay in the United States," EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.
"If it is shown that they can't stay in the United States we would understand why the United States wants certain member states to accept them," he said.
"We are not judging the United States, there is a need for information, we are not going to simply act in the middle of a fog."
Around 60 of the prisoners might have to be transferred elsewhere because they could face the death penalty at home, while others could be tried in US courts. Some may prove impossible to try, transfer or release.
A minority of EU countries -- France, Italy, Portugal and Spain -- have said they might be ready to accept former prisoners under strict conditions.
The bloc is also examining other options, like providing funds to other nations which might be prepared to host them.
Almost none of the remaining detainees are European citizens, and member countries could demand to conduct an independent assessment of the security risk they might pose, using US intelligence.
Should they be accepted, the former prisoners could be granted restricted residency status, possibly limiting their movement within the Schengen no borders area or imposing surveillance measures.
Those could also be granted refugee or protection status for one to three years, and steps could be taken to help them integrate.
The EU also wants reassurance that other inmates would not be transferred to another, possibly similar and equally contentious facility, like the Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
