Expressing the group's disappointment with the final text of the mid-term review of the EU's Stockholm Programme, GUE/NGL MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides explained that not only was its timing wrong, since we are not in the mid-term as the title would suggest, "but more importantly with its content".

"Instead of using this opportunity to try to criticise constructively and set the tone for the future, the text is just a general statement hailing the policies of the EU in the area of security and justice without any criticism or attempt to highlight the mistakes,"  he said.

MEP Triantaphyllides continued: "Nowhere does the text question the direction we have taken in several important policies such as, for example, in the field of migration and asylum or even in internal security, where priority is always given to repressive measures and security at the expense of rights, and where more and more surveillance measures are demanded."

He concluded: "The crucial role of economic policies and their consequences on fundamental rights is not acknowledged; the NSA scandal is not properly condemned; nor are the data transfer agreements between the EU and US that have led to serious violations been criticised."

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu