Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-31-Speech-3-055"
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"en.20010131.4.3-055"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank those Members who, through meetings, discussion and dialogue, have contributed to what we consider to be a step forward in Europe's strategy for the Mediterranean: the Mediterranean as a gateway not just to the Middle East but also to the Atlantic, a cultural as well as economic area, consolidating the South-South dialogue but also the North-South and East-South dialogues at a time when impending enlargement calls us all to assume specific responsibilities. Development must respect human dignity and the protection of the environment and health. Economic development must not disregard human rights or mutual respect for differences.
We all realise that Europe needs a new philosophy, namely that in order to be effective, common strategies must be realistic and practicable. Therefore, we must set ourselves clear, achievable targets so that, step by step, progress can be made towards development, security and stability.
On the one hand, a poet would say: "Woe betide the man who does not dare to dream great dreams!" but a statistician would reply: "Woe betide the politician who gets carried away on empty dreams and does not see or resolve the problems which are staring him in the face!" We have attempted to make our hopes practical and realisable in the short and medium terms. In other words, we have put forward proposals which will give all the countries of the Mediterranean the same dignity and the same opportunity for development in a new multi-faceted relationship with an increasingly large and more complex Europe, a relationship that will have to fight for its international credibility in the tough competition with the whole of the rest of the industrialised world.
Protecting the environment and health, dignity for workers, safeguarding the quality of products in order to protect the consumer and safeguarding a free – as long as it is fair – market, attentiveness to the specific cultural differences and traditions including architectural styles of each country and registered designation of origin products, a ban to prevent us Europeans from outrageously abusing the partnership relationships and exporting products to our partner countries which we have banned in Europe because they are dangerous, the boost for the development of all the capabilities of our Mediterranean partners, including assistance for placing the thousands and thousands of young people who have studied or trained in Europe in employment, child protection, the fight against the exploitation of minors and modern-day slavery, attentiveness to the situation of working women
and, in any case, to the dignity of all human beings are significant steps forward, just as Europe's commitment and endeavours to do all in its power to bring about peace and mutual respect in the Middle East must be substantial and given priority status.
It cannot be denied that, although the successive Summits were a milestone in that they pinpointed a large number of problems, they did not do anything to resolve them. Indeed, I regret to say that the governments have not implemented the proposals adopted at Barcelona: democracy, the rule of law, transparency, social rights and an internal policy to prevent communities being forced to leave their countries. A new policy of trilateral trade, safeguarding typical productions, including European productions, condemning and preventing counterfeiting and fraud, food and environmental safety, the development of craft products and the establishment of programmes to fight desertification and facilitate the conversion of non-drinking water into drinking water and the development of tourism are some of the many points which we have discussed. At this point, I would like to thank the officials of the committee and of the political groups for their work, which was particularly demanding because of the need to meet the earlier deadlines.
The time is now ripe to tackle practicable projects, and practicable projects are those which do not originate from specific preconceptions or concealed motives but from a policy's ability to marry the needs of the citizens with economic and social concerns. This is why Europe as a whole, not just Mediterranean Europe, to which, as an Italian, I have the honour to belong, must now recognise its strategy on the East and on the South and its commitment to these regions as absolutely essential, and confirm that if healthy, lasting progress is to be achieved, the requirements of the economy must go hand in hand with human dignity. This text was not written in order to be published as a mere declaration of intent: it was written to be implemented, and for this we place our confidence and our trust in the Commission and the Council, so that their cooperation with the European Parliament becomes practicable and updateable."@en1
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