Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-30-Speech-2-191"
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"en.20040330.5.2-191"2
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"Mr President, the assassination of the Hamas chief had one effect, which was that the Arab League summit, which was to have taken place yesterday and today, was cancelled. That is a tragedy because the summit was to have considered a number of proposals for reform in the Arab region. I want to focus on this question of reform because that is fundamental to our security in the European Union.
The Irish Foreign Minister spoke about the Arab-Israeli conflict. He also spoke about the evolution of democracy and civil society in these lands. My question is, what can
do? While Commissioner Patten spoke about the Barcelona process – a highly desirable process established a long time before the Americans' idea of a greater Middle East process – that process is not having the sort of effect that it should have.
As some of you may know, I have spent some time in the last few months, as rapporteur on the democracy initiative, going to the conference in Sana'a, Yemen, to Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus, to the Arab Parliamentary Union conference and to Athens last week with you, Mr President. This sort of democratic odyssey is trying to establish one thing: the appetite of the peoples of the Arab countries for democracy, the rule of law, civil society and so on. We know what our foreign policy priority is: we know it is human rights, it is democracy, the promotion of fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. But in this arc of instability on our rim, while the EU is spending EUR 700 million plus in MEDA funds, only EUR 7 million of that is being spent on democracy. I find myself caught between the Scylla of bureaucratic obstructionism in the Council and the Charybdis of bureaucratic obstructionism in the Commission. We need a programme that works: we have the means to do it and we have the will to do it in this Parliament. The question is, do the Commission and Council accept their political priorities? I address my remarks to two senior politicians who both occupy positions of responsibility at a very sensitive time for Europe."@en1
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