European justice ministers are using the shift in public opinion following last week's atrocities to enact "objectionable" and "dangerous" laws with minimal debate, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has warned, reports Frank McNally.
The council said anti-terrorist measures approved yesterday "would appear to be sidelining the courts and removing any meaningful element of judicial supervision of the extradition process".
The proposal for EU-wide search and arrest warrants was "tantamount to the creation of an EU police force by stealth," the ICCL added, and the measures would "inevitably be targeted against immigrants and already disadvantaged ethnic minorities, regardless of reassurances to the contrary".