H. whereas in democracies in which the respect for the rules of law is inherent, the fight against terrorism cannot be won by sacrificing or limiting the very principles that terrorism seeks to destroy, notably, the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms must never be compromised; whereas terrorism can and must be fought by legal means and must be defeated while respecting international and national law, I. whereas the United States (US) administration's strategy to combat terrorism has made use of pervasive instruments to monitor sensitive data relating to European citizens, such as the Passenger Names Record (PNR) agreement, and to monitor bank details through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) network, J. whereas on 6 September 2006, US President George W. Bush confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was operating a secret detention programme outside the United States, K. whereas President George W. Bush said that the vital information derived from the extraordinary rendition and secret detention programme had been shared with other countries and that the programme would continue, which raises the strong possibility that some European countries may have received, knowingly or unknowingly, information obtained under torture, L. whereas the Temporary Committee has obtained, from a confidential source, records of the informal transatlantic meeting of European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, of 7 December 2005, confirming that Member States had knowledge of the programme of extraordinary rendition, while all official interlocutors of the Temporary Committee provided inaccurate information on this matter, M. whereas the Temporary Committee has obtained, from a confidential source, records of meetings of the Council's Working Party on Public International Law (COJUR) and Transatlantic Relations Working Party (COTRA) with senior representatives of the US Department of State during the first half of 2006 (notably on 8 February and 3 May 2006), while it was provided by the Council Presidency only with a summarised version of these documents; whereas the documents sent by the Council to Parliament concerning those meetings in answer to Parliament's specific request, were incomplete summaries of the proceedings with essential parts missing, N. whereas the information on these meetings was not notified to Parliament and absolute secrecy was maintained in relation to their proceedings, O. whereas, in the present resolution, 'European countries' should be understood as meaning Member States and candidate and associate countries, as outlined in the mandate of the Temporary Committee adopted on 18 January 2006, 1. Recalls that terrorism represents one of the main threats to the security of the European Union and that it must be fought with lawful and coordinated efforts by all European governments, in close collaboration with international partners and notably with the United States, along the lines of the strategy defined at United Nations (UN) level; underlines that the fight against terrorism must be fought on the basis of, and in order to RR\382246XM.doc 5/77 PE 382.246v02-00 XM