Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-24-Speech-3-019"
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"en.20020424.3.3-019"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the applause just then for Commissioner Patten has made clear that we must never let a situation stop us talking to each other, even when it is highly dramatic and seems almost an expression of desperation. For if we stop talking to each other, it is only the weapons that will be left to speak. That this debate on the Mediterranean dialogue should be held here today, is important, and I would like to express from the heart my gratitude to the Spanish Presidency of the Council for the commitment they have shown.
We must also not lose sight of the fact that our American friends cannot be peacemakers on their own. The Americans will of course have to make a major contribution, but, for various reasons, the Palestinians trust us Europeans more than they do our American friends. This, then, is another reason – Israel is of course one, but this is another – why we have to take on important responsibilities in the region. Israel does, thank God, also have some very credible representatives. Yesterday in the Conference of Presidents, we had talks with Avraham Burg, the Speaker of the Knesset, and I have to tell you that this conversation gave me renewed hope, because Israel also has political figures who put reconciliation first rather than conflict and military action.
We urge the parties involved – the Palestinians, the Israelis, the world community – onward to redouble their efforts so that peace may at last reign in the Middle East, so that we Europeans may also have a good future with the countries around the Mediterranean, and so that Israel and Palestine may be able to live within secure borders. That alone will serve the cause of human rights in the Middle East.
Despite the shocking events in the Middle East, the Mediterranean dialogue has probably never been as necessary as it is today, for we face today the great danger of a real clash of civilisations breaking out. It will do that once our own heads become the places where we wall the cultures off from one another. That is why our task, in these days and in the future, must be to carry on this dialogue between cultures. That must be right at the top of our agenda.
What now shocks me is to hear, on the one hand, that it is proposed to establish a foundation for dialogue between cultures, which we welcome, but on the other that the million euro – obviously not a very substantial amount – may well not be made available. If we sign documents that then lose their value, then when we leave the conference, the conferences will have no value either! So I ask the Spanish Presidency and the Commission to ensure that the money required will also be made available, so that we can bring this dialogue about.
In these weeks and months, looking forward to the enlargement of the European Union, our gaze is directed principally towards the East, but it is important that we turn our eyes southwards, as the perils there are probably far greater than our problems in Eastern Europe. If it is the case that the distance from Algeria's capital Algiers to Paris is shorter than that from Paris to Warsaw, then this must make it clear to us in geographical terms that the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East are of great significance to Europeans like us.
We advocate a real partnership for us with the Mediterranean, with the countries of North Africa, and with the Middle East – both political and strategic, economic and financial, social and cultural. Of course it is important to combat terrorism, and that is a struggle we all support. We must not, though, reduce our dialogue with the Arab and Islamic world to simply fighting terrorism; it must, rather, be a dialogue that includes all the political, economic, financial and cultural issues. That is why we have so much more to do in those areas than we have done in the past.
Of course it is important that we should have a Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary assembly. That is what we have called for. We would, though, be failing in our responsibility as Europeans and as a Parliament if we believed that the creation of such an institution would mean that all our tasks had been completed. On the contrary, what matters is that we make a reality of our solemn declarations. After visiting Israel a number of times, I visited many states in the Arab world, and I have the impression that these countries will be able to live in security, freedom and democracy only if we really do manage to create jobs there. As the Commissioner said, 40 million jobs are needed around the Mediterranean. If they are not created, then the young people will carry on getting into boats, and – as is estimated – 7 000 people from Morocco alone will lose their lives in the attempt to reach Spain or Portugal across the Mediterranean. That is why development in these countries must be a success. Above all, we must help with the privatisation of their economy and help give private enterprises a chance to use that to create jobs. As education is one of the most important prerequisites for human development, and above all for the actualisation of human rights, illiteracy in the states of North Africa must be done away with.
Turning to the Middle East, the seriousness and complexity of this area of concern has meant that these issues have been the subject of in-depth discussions in our group as well, but we start by saying that the policy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth must come to an end. If things carry on like that, there will never be peace in the Middle East. That is why it is so important that the Israeli troops should withdraw now. At the same time, though, we declare it to be criminal to talk young people into strapping self-detonating devices to themselves in order to kill both themselves and others as well. That is why we must make demands equally of both sides, of the Israelis as much as of the Palestinians."@en1
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