Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-13-Speech-3-286"
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"en.20001213.17.3-286"2
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"May I say to you, Mr Fernando Savater, that it is with deep feeling that we welcome you today to confer upon ‘Basta Ya’ the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought for the year 2000.
Through yourself, the European Parliament pays tribute to the victims of terrorism and rewards a citizens’ movement which has spontaneously decided to cry ‘Basta Ya’, or ‘Enough is enough’, to those who deny the right to life, that most precious of commodities for every human being, and who also deny the right to freedom, that is to say the freedom to live in daily peace and security. The European Parliament also rewards the physical and moral courage of citizens who dare, at the risk of their lives, to state their refusal to give in to intimidation. Through ‘Basta Ya’, the European Parliament intends to give its unqualified and most determined support to all the associations and collectives of all ideological tendencies which are committed to peace and to all those who take action, faced with the senseless violence with which the Spanish Basque country is confronted. As you know, our Assembly’s support goes back a long way. Only recently, the European Parliament adopted a declaration on terrorism in Spain. This declaration was signed personally by 413 MEPs of all nationalities and all political affiliations. It firmly condemns ETA’s crimes in Spain and invites the institutions of the European Union to adopt effective weapons to combat terrorism.
In awarding the Sakharov prize for the first time to those who are actively defending human rights within the European Union, the European Parliament is stating formally that any violation of these rights must be fought uncompromisingly. For democrats throughout the world, Andrei Sakharov had symbolic status as the man who stood up against dictatorship and resisted the moral blackmail of an oppressive system. All Sakharov Prize recipients since 1988 have embodied this same struggle for freedom. The oppression you yourselves are resisting is perhaps of the worst kind. It is acknowledged, but has no face. It is imposed upon a whole society in an attempt to destroy a political system which has been democratically chosen by that country’s citizens.
That is also why Parliament sides with your struggle. As I had occasion to say on 27 September 2000 in Madrid, at the poignant ceremony at which medals were conferred upon the families of ETA victims, there is no place for terrorism within the European Union. It is the very negation of democracy. Violence in any form whatsoever is not only to be condemned, but can only rebound upon its perpetrators, since it excludes those who have recourse to it from the democratic world.
Our European Community is above all a community of values based on respect for the rule of law. The European Charter of Fundamental Rights, which we proclaimed in Nice as recently as 7 December 2000, bears witness to this. Article 2 of the Charter enshrines the right to life, and each time someone is killed by terrorism in Spain, the whole of the European Union senses the relevance of what is one of its most crucial principles.
The democracy in which we believe is about using language to debate and convince. It involves respect for the other person and submits to the will of the majority of the people in a free vote. It does not find expression in the anonymous assassin waiting for his victim in the dark vestibule of his apartment block or in the use of violent terrorism to force a whole people, through fear and blackmail, into silence or passive complicity.
I could not end without paying tribute to the memory of the hundreds of people who have fallen under the bullets of their murderers. These are women and men of all ages, of all social conditions and of all political viewpoints who have been cruelly wrested from those close to them. I wish to assure these people, and the approximately 2000 people wounded by this same scourge, of our solidarity. I also want to tell them how their dignity in adversity and lack of personal vengefulness merit our deepest admiration.
I would thank you and, Mr Savater, I would now invite you to take the floor."@en1
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