Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-168"
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"en.20030115.10.3-168"2
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"Mr President, we are very keen to make the conclusion and adoption of this Agreement dependent on the quest for solutions as to how this area can be stabilised. Lebanon, which was once known as the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’, has for many years sustained great blows, both internally and externally. As a European Union, we should be making a proportionate contribution to restoring stability to this country and hence to the achievement of stability in general, and I believe this Agreement to be a means towards that end. That this should be done in relation to agriculture and agricultural products, to free trade in industrially produced goods, to legislation on trade, and also in relation to issues concerning the rules on the determination of origin, constitutes important progress, and we also welcome the way in which it has proved possible, by means of a separate exchange of letters, to incorporate cooperation in counter-terrorism in this project as a whole.
As my predecessors on the floor have said, however, there are a number of points to which we are keen to give further attention, such as the issue of the Syrian military presence. There is no doubt that this problem has to be resolved, both in order to promote stability by making full use of the country's authorities' capacity for change, and also in order to help bring peace to the region as a whole. I believe that it is also important that we who belong to the European Parliament, being desirous of building up still further our cooperation with the Lebanese Parliament, should indicate that the abolition of the death penalty, the ratification of the United Nations Convention against Torture, as well as the signing of the ICC's Rome Statute, will have a major part to play in moving this development further forward.
As it will do again tomorrow, this Parliament has expressly welcomed Lebanon's efforts at participation in the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1373 by freezing the assets of terrorist groups. We would request the Council and the Commission to cause an anti-terrorist clause with similar content to be included in all future agreements, as decided at the Seville European Council.
Ladies and gentlemen, we see the position of the Palestinian refugees as being a most particularly serious problem. We have to be clear in our own minds about how great a burden they are on Lebanon. I believe that this is where we have to work closely with Lebanon in order to enable this problem – which is not just about their living conditions, but also has to do with the possibilities for bringing peace to the whole area – to be resolved in a reasonable way, in order to establish proper relations between Palestine and Israel and to secure a lasting peace between them. There are also many other associated problems.
Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, it is our wish that the transitional period of twelve years should not be exceeded until we have established a free trade area with Lebanon, and we hope that this Agreement can be implemented accordingly."@en1
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