European Diary: The death of three inmates at the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba last week probably couldn't have happened at a worse time for EU-US relations.
With relations between the leaders of the two big economic power blocs still in recovery mode after the invasion of Iraq, tomorrow's EU-US summit in Vienna was set to focus on areas of common interest and action: trade, Iran and the Middle East.
However, the suicides in Guantánamo Bay on June 11th mean that the EU is now forced to call once again for the closure of the US prison.
At the close of the European Council meeting of EU leaders last Friday, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik, whose state currently holds the presidency of the EU, said EU leaders would place the issue at the top of their agenda at the summit.
"Nobody may be placed in a position where there is a legal vacuum with no legal rules Human rights must be respected," said Ms Plassnik, who is well aware of US government sensitivities over criticism of its conduct in the "war against terror".
Talking about Guantánamo is one thing - after all President Bush has already stated that he wants the camp closed - but raising the issue of rendition flights at a high-profile meeting is another matter entirely. At the European Council meeting on Thursday and on Friday, Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso were both asked if rendition flights would be on the summit agenda.
Both leaders avoided the question, but were soon squirming in their seats when CNN twice asked if EU governments had lost their moral authority to chide the US given that several recent reports have accused EU states of complicity in CIA rendition flights.
The question followed three reports on the illegal transfer of terrorist suspects by the CIA through EU airports that have been published by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg body that monitors human rights in Europe.
One of these reports published by the Council of Europe secretary general Terry Davis last Wednesday noted that "legislative and administrative measures effectively to protect individuals against violations of human rights committed by agents of foreign security services appear to be the exception rather than the rule" in Europe.
After analysing EU government policies on legal and administrative safeguards on rendition flights, Mr Davis said: "the current controls and procedures for civil air traffic lack adequate safeguards against human rights violations." Mr Davis's report followed a separate report published by the Council of Europe's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, which accused Ireland and 13 other European states of "intentional or grossly negligent collusion" in allowing the US to set up "a global spider's web of secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers". Ireland fell into the category of "negligent collusion" for allowing Shannon airport to be used as a stopover point for CIA flights on "rendition" operations.
Other states chided by the report include Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Britain and Italy.
On Monday last week at about 4pm at an EU foreign ministers' meeting, Dermot Ahern rejected the criticism levied by the Council of Europe and insisted no rendition flights went through Shannon airport. He told The Irish Times that the US had given categorical assurances that it had not transported prisoners through Shannon.
Yet just a few hours later, Mr Ahern was informed that a US marine being held prisoner was transported through the airport without the necessary permission being obtained by the US from the Irish authorities.
This was not an act of rendition. After all, the marine in question was arrested for stealing clothes, not planning a wave of bombings in Iraq.
But the fact that the US did not follow procedures and inform the Irish authorities about the prisoner transfer begs the question: can we trust the categorical assurances of the Bush administration? Another report on rendition published by the European Parliament last week highlights the central role that Irish airports, particularly Shannon, have played for the CIA in recent years.
Aircraft operated by the CIA flew into and out of Irish airports 158 times between September 12th, 2001, and the end of 2005 - from destinations that are linked with the transfer of prisoners such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Egypt. The annex to the report containing the flight details was compiled by comparing the data obtained from Eurocontrol - the agency responsible for European airspace - and the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Just one of the flights through Shannon has so far been linked to a rendition flight. On February 17th, 2003, a Gulfstream jet took an Egyptian cleric called Abu Omar, who was kidnapped in Milan, from Italy to Egypt. The aircraft then turned around and flew to Shannon to refuel, arriving at 5.52am on February 18th, says the report.
But several of the other CIA-operated aircraft that stopped at Shannon over the past five years have taken part in documented rendition flights from EU airports.
The question is: will the EU presidency raise the issue tomorrow with President Bush? And if it doesn't, can the union claim the moral high ground over Guantánamo Bay? After all, a fair proportion of the 750-odd inmates at the detention centre may have stopped over at EU airports.