There will be no surprises for Tony Blair in the European Parliament report on secret CIA flights - only the uncomfortable realisation that Labour MEPs voted for its condemnation of governments including Britain .

They did so because the episode raises fundamental questions about the conduct of the War on Terror and the way that holders of European passports could be whisked away by foreign agents for interrogation and possibly torture.

MEPs reject the argument of the Bush Administration that, when dealing with possibly the most dangerous terrorists the world has seen, the end justifies the means.

The vote was close today because of fears that the pendulum of moral outrage is swinging too much against the efforts of the US and its European allies to combat the “asymmetrical” terrorism of al-Qaeda.

Moreover, the evidence does not prove that every CIA flight allowed through European airspace was involved in “extraordinary rendition”. Far from it.

But President Bush has admitted that a limited number of flights were used for the transfer of suspects and European governments still have no systems in place to verify who is on board CIA planes that pass through their airspace or stop at their airports.

Some would argue that the European Parliament is more freely able to criticise because it has no government to support or citizens directly to protect.

But its criticisms are not new. They repeat those of the Council of Europe, the 46-nation body set up in the post-war era to monitor human rights in Europe.

The council found last year that 14 countries were permitting covert CIA flights linked to rendition and made three unanswered demands: national oversight of foreign security agents on the same basis that domestic agencies are scrutinised; better access to all flights passing through national airspace; and the application of basic laws to those enjoying diplomatic immunity, such as CIA agents, so that “immunity does not mean impunity”.

While the European Parliament’s claims are not new, they are adding to pressure on member states to act.

When governments change in Europe, they are increasingly likely to co-operate with inquiries into alleged CIA collusion.

Spain has become the latest country to agree to take part in a judicial inquiry in to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Documents including details of flights that stopped off on the islands of Mallorca and Tenerife will be handed to a High Court judge investigating their use as "staging points" for secret transfers.

Germany has issued arrest warrants for 13 suspects over the abduction of a German national of Lebanese descent, Khaled el-Masri, who claimed he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA.

In Italy, a judge is considering whether there is enough evidence to try 26 Americans and six Italians for their role in the 2003 alleged kidnapping of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar.

As a result of this reaction across Europe against rendition, CIA agents are reportedly increasingly taking out their own private liability insurance to protect themselves from prosecution abroad.

Mr Blair must be wondering what will emerge from the files once he has left Downing Street.

Labour MEPs did do him one favour, however. They ensured that criticisms of non-cooperation with the European Parliament inquiry by Geoff Hoon, the former Defence Secretary, were expunged from the report. The charges arose from a particularly spikey committee session when Mr Hoon was cross-examined by Baroness Sarah Ludford of the Liberal Democrats who became infuriated by his minimalist answers.

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