90 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 victims of trafficking will have the right to remain in Portugal for between 30 and 60 days while they decide whether to assist in criminal investigations into their traffickers. During this time they cannot be deported. They will also be able to apply for a temporary residence permit of up to one year, independently of any decision to collaborate with the authorities. The government also plans to build centres for temporary shelter of trafficking victims. However, on 5 February the Office of Public Prosecutions announced that it was opening an criminal investigation into possible crimes of torture and ill-treatment on the basis of information provided to it concerning the CIA flights, by the Portuguese Member of the European Parliament Ana Gomes and journalist Rui Costa Pinto. ROMANIA Background Counter-terrorism On 14 February the European Parliament approved the final version of the report of its temporary committee of inquiry into alleged flights by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operating in Europe as part of the USA’s programme of renditions – the illegal transfer of people between states outside of any judicial process. Many of the flights were believed to have transported prisoners to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. The report found there had been stopovers by flights operated by the CIA in Portuguese territory, believed to be part of the network involved in renditions, on 91 occasions and evidence of an additional 17 suspect flights travelling to or from Guantánamo Bay that had stopped over in Portugal between 11 January 2002 and 24 June 2006. The current president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, is named in the document as former Prime Minister of Portugal and it is alleged that his government must have been aware of the nature of the CIA flights stopping over in Portuguese territory. The current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Luís Amado, claimed that the committee had gone beyond its mandate and that the allegations that Portuguese officials had been aware of the nature of the illegal flights were not supported by any real evidence. The first half of 2007 was marked by political instability caused by the rivalry between Prime Minister Călin PopescuTăriceanu and President Traian Băsescu. On 18 April members of the Romanian parliament voted to suspend President Băsescu from office after he had been accused of constitutional violations. In a subsequent 19 May referendum on impeachment an overwhelming majority -74 per cent -- of Romanians who went to the polls that day voted against dismissing President Băsescu. On 1 January Bulgaria and Romania became member states of the European Union (EU). On 27 June the European Commission (EC) issued its report on the progress made by both states in meeting the accompanying measures decided by the EC when they joined the EU. The EC warned both states to take more action to fight corruption, but did not impose any sanctions for their failure to meet reform targets. The EC noted that Romania had made progress with judicial reform but needed to do more to implement the changes. The EU urged Romania to ensure a more transparent and efficient judicial process; to establish an agency to check conflicts of interest; and to take more effective action against high-level corruption. On 25 January Luís Amado had declared that the investigations of the Portuguese government into alleged CIA flight stopovers in Portugal had been closed on the grounds that there was no evidence to support the continuation of such an inquiry. Amnesty International AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007