Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-30-Speech-2-177"

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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what the Council has told us does not, in my opinion, add much that is new to a European position which, beyond endlessly recited hollow phrases such as ‘Mediterranean cooperation with a view to peace and prosperity in the region’, is totally inconsistent. In reality, the Union plays no role at all in the Middle East, apart from as a provider of funds and, more often than not, one acting in the dark, too. Politically, we do nothing, however. We could, however, play a role if we left behind our European divisions, something that is no doubt impossible, and if we had the courage clearly to take a side. It is not a matter of taking one of the two obvious, and old, sides in the Middle East conflict, with the Israelis on the one hand and the Palestinians on the other. This debate is outdated. The choice we must make concerns the current real divide, which pits the moderates against the extremists on both sides. The United States does not make this choice. It even does the exact opposite and sides with the moderates and extremists by turns. Furthermore, it very often sides with the extremists, whether they be the fundamentalist Muslims or Israeli religious extremists. It does this in accordance with the interest it has in dividing the region in order to rule it better. Now, Europe’s interest lies specifically in reuniting the region in order better to make a success of the forms of Mediterranean cooperation that will make the Mediterranean what it always was, that is to say the geopolitical centre of the world. France’s policy is the exact opposite of that of the United States. France resolutely sides with moderate Palestinians and Israelis on both sides. This is why, alone in the face of the United States, it is the other major power present in the Middle East. Alas, apart from France, Europe is too divided, so that we are reduced to the feeble words we have just heard from the Council. It is a shame, but it is not surprising."@en1

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