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FM USEU BRUSSELS
TO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
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RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 000743 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/29/2019 
TAGS: PREL PTER EUM
SUBJECT: GUANTANAMO: S/E FRIED AND EU COUNTERPARTS DISCUSS 
JOINT POSITION ON DETAINEES 
 
REF: BRUSSELS 681 
 
Classified By: USEU POL M-C Chris Davis for reasons 1.4 (b) (d) 
 
¶1.  (C/NF) Summary:  Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure 
(S/GC) Daniel Fried met with EU counterparts on May 19 in 
Brussels.  EU officials expressed optimism that wording of 
the U.S.-EU joint statement on resettlement of Guantanamo 
detainees in EU member states will be agreed to in time for 
approval by the June 18 European Council (in conjunction 
with the EU internal position on the same).  They believed 
that 
its roll-out would help calm the political debate in the 
United 
States and n the EU on the closing of the  detention center 
and 
according security concerns.  Therecent return to France of 
former 
detainee Boumedienne, according to the EU interlocutors, was 
not 
seen as in discord with EU planning, but rather done in 
anticipation 
of reaching the internal position.  Acknowledging the 
political difficulties, EU interlocutors nonetheless said 
the U.S. needed to take primary responsibility for closing 
Guantanamo by receiving detainees itself; however, they are 
willing to work towards language to satisfy both U.S. and 
EU concerns on that issue. 
 
¶2.  (C/NF) The Political and Security Committee will 
discuss the language of the U.S.-EU joint statement. 
Separately, EU interlocutors mentioned that they will soon 
transmit a letter to AG Holder and SecDef Gates spelling 
out eight EU principles on detention policy.  The 
revitalization of the military tribunals, troubling to the 
Europeans, was explained as necessary for cases which 
cannot be adjudicated in Article III courts.  Discussing 
the details of the EU draft of the joint statement, S/E 
Fried said specific wording on U.S. responsibility to 
accept detainees and on the degree of information sharing 
will need to be studied in Washington, then discussed via 
DVC on May 27.  End Summary 
 
Barroso Cabinet: Joint EU-U.S. Position on Track, 
Information Sharing to Follow 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3.  (C/NF) To discuss the "enabling environment" 
permitting some EU member states to accept Guantanamo 
detainees, S/E Daniel Fried, L/PM Stephen Pomper, S/GC 
Michael Williams, and USEU Pol M-C met May 19 in Brussels 
with Commission President Barroso's Cabinet Director Joao 
Vale de Almeida, European Commission Justice, Freedom and 
Security Director General Jonathan Faull and his assistant 
Telmo Baltazar, and External Relations unit chief Luigi 
Soreca.  S/E Fried said a joint U.S.-EU position by June 
could potentially influence positively the domestic U.S. 
debate on detainees, adding  that the U.S. draft had full 
interagency clearances.  Almeida responded that Commission 
President Barroso is very supportive of closing Guantanamo 
and that Almeida's deadline for a joint U.S.-EU position is 
June 15.   Faull said the deadline would be met, despite 
some loose ends in the Czech EU presidency, and that even 
Sweden wants the internal position and joint statement 
in place before its EU presidency begins July 1.  The U.S. 
and EU texts were already quite similar, Faull added, and 
the follow-on meeting (see below, paras 7-16) could delve 
into the wording. 
 
¶4.  (C/NF)  Luigi Soreca said the mechanism for the 
exchange of information within the EU regarding specific 
detainees was close to being finalized.  S/E Fried noted 
that the USG's objective is for individual EU member states 
to receive substantially the same information as U.S. 
decision-makers used in making their decisions on the 
detainees, and that receiving countries could then request 
further information and clarification through intelligence 
channels as needed.  From his own reading of some of the 
files prepared by the Guantanamo task force, S/E Fried said 
a complete picture of the each detainee emerges and that 
member states should find these files useful and adequate. 
A key objective, said Faull, is to arm Interior Ministers 
with enough information on detainees so that they can tell 
skeptical legislatures, "We have received full disclosure." 
He said the Austrian Interior Minister had been difficult 
on intelligence sharing, but Austria has accepted the 
principle of an EU umbrella, aided by the precedent case of 
 
BRUSSELS 00000743  002 OF 003 
 
 
the Palestinians and the Church of the Nativity.  Almeida 
added that Barroso would see the Austrian chancellor the 
following week, and S/E Fried expressed his willingness to 
go to Vienna as well.   As for reported difficulties with 
Germany, Faull said he had confidence that Interior 
Minister Schauble would ultimately decline to block the EU 
internal position, despite his reservations. 
 
¶5.  (C/NF)  On the transfer to France the previous week of 
Guantanamo detainee Boumedienne, Faull said France was 
"anticipating, not obstructing" the formulation of a 
U.S.-EU joint position.  Soreca said France had informed 
COREPER prior to the transfer, adding that the Boumedienne 
case "confirms" the EU framework approach. 
 
¶6.  (C/NF)  Moving towards one of the more pressing 
concerns, Jonathan Faull said the EU wanted a "credible 
answer" to what the U.S. is doing itself to accept 
detainees, which, he added, could affect the drafting of 
the joint statement.  Acknowledging S/E Fried's 
characterization of the current debate in the United 
States, Faull said the European public would be slow to 
believe that President Obama could already have a political 
problem with this issue.  Nonetheless, Faull said,  that 
the EU would work with the US to find suitable language for 
the joint statement.  Almeida concluded, "We are happy with 
the way things are moving." 
 
Details Discussed with Counter-Terrorism Coordinator 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Immediately after meeting with the Cabinet of 
European Commission President Barroso, S/E Fried and the 
delegation, joined by USEU Justice Counselor M.L.Warren, 
met with EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de 
Kerchove and his staff Tim Jones and Christiane Hoehn, and 
the Czech Presidency Permanent Representation First 
 Secretary Juraj Fogada.  Jonathan Faull, Telmo Baltazar and 
Luigi Soreca also joined. 
 
¶8.  (C/NF)  De Kerchove began by conceding that the EU 
still needed to persuade one remaining Member State 
(meaning Germany) to agree to the proposed U.S.-EU joint 
statement in part because of that State's concerns that a 
joint statement would compel member states to receive 
detainees.  De Kerchove said the language of the proposed 
statement would calm member states' fears that the 
statement would be a vehicle for the EU somehow to oblige 
them to accept detainees.  S/E Fried noted that after his 
recent private consultations in Germany about possible 
Guantanamo resettlements, the Germans had immediately made 
the talks public, beginning a painful public debate on the 
issue  All agreed that the German reaction was for the most 
part a function of internal politics and upcoming election 
maneuvering. 
 
¶9.  (C)  De Kerchove said the May 19 Political and Security 
Council would discuss (i) the overall roadmap for reaching 
the EU internal position, (ii) the proposed U.S.-EU joint 
statement, (iii) the EU draft letter to AG Holder and 
SecDef Gates outlining the eight principles the EU saw as 
fundamental to the U.S.'s ongoing review in the Detention 
Policy Task Force, and (iv) the intention to launch a 
process later in the autumn to deepen the U.S.-EU legal and 
policy dialogue in the security area, the so-called 
"Bellinger Dialogue."  De Kerchove and Faull noted that 
although they might be able to gain the agreement of 
COREPER at an earlier date, the joint statement would have 
a June 14th deadline for decision to allow for a 
ministerial blessing at the EU Council's General Affairs 
meeting on June 19.  They noted the expected and ongoing 
"tussle" between Foreign Ministers, who tended to be more 
receptive, with Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, who 
tended to be more reticent about accepting detainees for 
resettlement. 
 
¶10.  (C)  De Kerchove remarked that President Obama's 
recent announcement  that the USG would revive military 
commissions posed additional difficulties on the EU side. 
The timing of the announcement was explained as necessary 
because of the expiration of the 120-day stay of some of 
the detainee cases in the military commissions.  S/E Fried 
said that the military commissions would be significantly 
reformed in order to provide additional due process 
safeguards that might be even further expanded as the 
Administration worked with Congress.  S/E Fried noted that 
for those detainees determined as prosecution candidates, 
 
BRUSSELS 00000743  003 OF 003 
 
 
the USG will use its Article III (federal) courts where 
feasible, but that for certain cases military commissions 
may be appropriate, and the USG wishes to preserve that 
option. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  Dr. Hoehn of the De Kerchove's office explained 
what had been done in the EU's redraft of the latest U.S. 
version of the proposed joint statement.  In a number of 
places it was close to and in some cases  exactly the text 
the USG had provided.  The EU text was divided into two 
parts: (1) the closing of Guantanamo, and (2) US-EU 
 counterterrorism and other cooperation beyond that effort. 
The information sharing provisions in the Guantanamo- 
related part of the text were were redrafted in line with 
the Council's conclusions on how the information exchange 
mechanism would work.  De Kerchove said that it was also 
important to highlight that Guantanamo is first a U.S. 
problem and to note the U.S.'s responsibility to accept 
some of the detainees for resettlement on U.S. soil - both 
 concepts that were reflected in the EU draft.  Faull 
agreed, adding the EU was helping, but did not have the 
responsibility of solving this problem. 
 
¶13.  (C/NF)  De Kerchove stressed that the two major sticking 
points to obtaining support from Germany and the Czech EU 
Presidency are (i) acknowledging that Guantanamo closure 
is first a U.S. problem requiring U.S. solutions, including 
acceptance by the USG of at least some detainees for 
resettlement in its own territory; and (ii) the 
availability and amount of information a non-receiving 
Member State would have access to when another Member State 
receives detainees for resettlement. 
 
¶14.  (C)  Other concerns raised by S/E Fried and others 
from the U.S. delegation included statements referencing 
detainees as "cleared for release," which was not a 
categorization necessarily used by the USG; that the USG 
would give "consideration to paying compensation to the 
detainees," which is not something the USG would agree to 
as formulated; and the statement that it is the 
responsibility of the United States to accept detainees 
into its own territory.  S/E Fried highlighted the last 
statement and a bullet from the EU Council summary of 
conclusions regarding the amount of, and extent to which 
information would be shared as serious issues that needed 
further discussion in Washington. 
 
¶15.  (C/NF)  The discussion proceeded to the roll-out of 
the joint statement - its timing and who would issue it. 
S/E Fried said that the USG was looking toward June for the 
announcement once the EU internal position was concluded, 
but would have to consult with Washington as to the 
question of who might issue it.  De Kerchove and Faull 
said it should be issued at a very high-level to accord the 
appropriate political weight to the document for both U.S. 
and European publics.  The EU has also not decided who will 
issue the Joint Statement on its behalf; however, de 
Kerchove raised the possibility of the current Czech Prime 
Minister, Commission President Barroso, and Commission 
Vice-President Barrot. 
 
¶16.  (C)  Both sides agreed that the next discussion on the 
joint statement would be by DVC on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. 
The objective for both sides is to have a completed text; 
i.e., through the necessary reviews by both of our systems, 
by the end of May - beginning of June. 
 
¶17. (U) This message has been cleared by Special Envoy 
Fried. 
 
 
.