Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-03-Speech-3-031"
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"en.20031203.6.3-031"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, I am going to read some statements made after Naples. Mr Fischer said: ‘I am leaving Naples more concerned than when I arrived’. Commissioner de Palacio said: ‘It is clear that only a minority of States support the Giscard d’Estaing project. Mr Villepin said: ‘I will not accept watered-down compromises’.
I therefore appeal to you: let us live forever, as Mr Cohn-Bendit wants. Indeed, let us ward off illness, but let us not continue to condemn to death entire populations of the world in the name of freedom and legality.
The President-in-Office of the Council himself has stated that Austria, Estonia, Denmark and, to a certain extent, Spain, Poland and the United Kingdom would, if they had to choose, currently opt for Nice rather than the new system. No comment. This is the picture.
In his excellent speech, which we all applauded with pleasure, Mr Cohn-Bendit stated that he did not want to die for Denmark, Europe or America nor from any illness. Bravo. Nor do I. However, this policy, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, this lack of policy on the part of our, or your, Europe, is condemning tens of thousands of people to death in the Middle East and jeopardising the region’s fate and future.
In my opinion, and I support the appeal made also by the former President, Mr Cossiga, on this matter – on the issue of war and peace – pacifists, the only thing you can say is that we must withdraw our troops. Bravo. You are no different from the people in 1939.
It is now necessary, and this is our specific proposal as radical members of the Bonino List, in compliance with international law and the rules of war, that experts be consulted as a matter of urgency. We must act quickly to legalise the situation and, therefore, the UN, Europe, the Arab League, and, I believe, even the United States, must call for an official peace process.
The error committed in Italy by the Allies, who even at that time were liberators, is being repeated in the Middle East. On 8 September 1943, when the Italian army disintegrated overnight like Saddam Hussein’s army, Italy could have been liberated in two months. Instead, it took them months and months. It took them six months just to set up the Republic of Salò.
There will be no territorial Republic of Salò, but we are clearly witnessing the clandestine reform of the Iraqi army, not least in that it remains unpaid.
Consequently, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, in my view, Italy, and now Europe, must take the initiative of convening a special Council meeting for the purpose of proposing a peace process to the UN, the United States and the international community. In accordance with the rules of international war, Saddam Hussein is to be characterised as a clandestine fighter so that – as happened for instance in Cassibile in Italy – haggling can subsequently take place not over Saddam Hussein’s immunity, but over his exile and impunity.
This is a genuine political initiative. It can bring together France, Germany and even neo-conservatives in the US. Italy and Europe are once again shuddering as they did in the case of the former Yugoslavia. The image of Srebrenica symbolises our failure to act."@en1
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