Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-127"
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"en.20000216.8.3-127"2
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"Mr President, this has been a very useful debate. One or two speeches have referred to specific issues which we are well advised to think about very carefully. For example, Mrs Maij-Weggen referred to both Indonesia and Burma and made some important points about both those countries and the human rights situation there.
What I would like to focus on very briefly are one or two themes which ran through our debate. One of the very first speakers, Mr Wuori, spoke of the remarks made earlier today by Mr Havel. It was a remarkable speech and I hope that Mr Gollnisch, who is no longer able to be with us, was able to hear that speech as well. I also hope that, if there is any life in outer space, as has been speculated by Mr Newton Dunn, it was tuned in to Mr Havel’s speech as well. Mr Havel reminded us that the Union is not just about markets, about GDP growth, it is a Union of values that is reflected in the Treaties and is reflected in our obligations in the whole area of external assistance, reflected quite specifically in what we are charged to do. How do we implement what the Treaties say in all those words about development assistance programmes?
One or two honourable Members, Mr Ferber and Mr Cushnahan, spoke about the gap between rhetoric and reality. Mr Cashman said, which is right in a sense, that words are no substitute for real action. Of course, words can make a bit of a difference, a point that was made by Mrs Malmström. She said that she had received a letter from the Chinese Ambassador, a very amiable and highly intelligent representative and servant of his country, to tell her that she was wrong and the European Parliament was wrong in its attitude on human rights in China. I think after her speech she will receive a cascade of letters from the Chinese authorities. She will be able to fill a filing cabinet with letters about what is claimed to be the real situation in China. I think she was reflecting the views of many non-governmental organisations, many people who admire Chinese civilisation but are concerned about what is happening in China today.
Of course it is entirely right that we have to look at action, and the very first speech by Mr Salafranca mentioned two issues apart from Geneva which represent actions, one of which is of course made possible by the generosity of the European Parliament on behalf of the European taxpayer – that is the budget that we are able to spend on human rights activities – about EUR 100 million that is spent through programmes, for which I am responsible, mainly going to non-governmental organisations to promote human rights and to promote democratisation. We will want to share with Parliament, as vicars say, our views on how that spending programme to support human rights can be best focused and best targeted in the years ahead.
There is also the question which was referred to by Mr Salafranca, who I am sorry is unable to be with us at the end of this brief but useful debate. There is also the question of our overall policy on human rights and the relationship between human rights and foreign policy. I want to remind Parliament that the Commission will be publishing, before the middle of the year, a comprehensive, intellectual case for placing human rights at the heart of the development of the common foreign and security policy. It is immensely important, and if I had not thought that already, having listened to the remarkable speech by Mr Havel earlier in the day I would have certainly come to that conclusion.
It has been a useful debate. I hope we can have further debates like this. I hope we can have, in particular, debates about some of the ways in which we translate these good intentions into practice on the ground where it matters, where people are still being tortured, where people are still being raped and are still being denied the sort of civil rights that this House takes for granted, as I do."@en1
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