The European Commission will look into press reports that the CIA has secret prisons in eastern Europe, a spokesman said on Thursday, noting that such facilities would not be compatible with EU treaties.
The EU's executive will "at technical ... level find out what the truth is in these stories. In that sense we will check the accuracy of those reports," said Friso Roscam Abbing, the spokesman for justice and security affairs.
"When we have finished that examination, we will further define our stances," he said, refusing outright to characterise the checks as an "investigation".
The Washington Post newspaper reported on Wednesday that the US intelligence agency was holding al Qaeda suspects in prisons in eight countries including Thailand, Afghanistan and "several democracies in eastern Europe".
While emphasising that the commission had no information on the so-called "black sites", Roscam Abbing said such jails would probably contravene the EU human rights charter and the international convention against torture.
"Obviously, the existence of secret prisons does not seem to me to be compatible with the EU's fundamental rights charter," he said.
"It is clear that all 25 member states, having signed up to the European convention on human rights and to the international convention against torture, are due to respect the obligations arising from those treaties," he said.
The US newspaper did not name the eastern European countries, but Poland, which has been one of Washington's strongest allies in the region, as well as Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria have denied hosting secret prisons.