Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-31-Speech-3-207"
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"en.20040331.6.3-207"2
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".
Mr President, the debate was very interesting. I concur with the view put forward by many that our Union is rooted in a shared commitment to freedom, human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law. Our Union must be an exemplar in all of those areas, otherwise we are an exercise in hypocrisy.
I mentioned that in the Tampere programme the Council reaffirmed the importance that the Union and the Member States attach to the absolute right to seek asylum, mentioned by several Members. It agreed to work towards the establishment of a common European asylum system. That is very important and absolutely correct. Mr Evans, for example, said that the system we establish must have clarity. He is absolutely correct in that regard. Given the debate that has been raging in a number of Member States, I want to touch upon the issue of migration, an issue raised by a number of Members. There is a disturbing rise in xenophobic comment, particularly in some parts of the popular media. Europe is open to migration. Indeed migration into Europe is both necessary and desirable, along with migration within Europe. The development of a common EU migration policy is therefore of particular importance. Both Mr Evans and Ms Kaufmann touched upon this. It is important that we have a clear-cut policy on legal migration in order to help put an end to some of the disturbing hysteria.
The Irish presidency will continue to support an initiative by the Commission to combat trafficking in human beings, especially bearing in mind the work of the expert group in this area and the Brussels Declaration.
Quite a number of speakers made reference to the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the draft Constitutional Treaty. It strikes me that the Charter of Fundamental Rights elements in the draft Constitutional Treaty are one of the great pillars on which that Treaty is based. The Charter provides an additional safeguard for citizens of the Union in their dealings with the institutions of the Union or those of Member States when they apply Union law. I simply cannot understand how this can be portrayed as anything other than positive. I was therefore surprised by the contribution by the Earl of Stockton in this regard. I do not think it is correct to portray the Charter as a negative; it is positive in every regard.
The Earl of Stockton made the point that common sense and good manners are the best protection. Perhaps he would be right if we lived in an ideal world, but we do not. We live in a less than perfect world. My personal experience is that common sense and good manners have failed us on more than one occasion.
Several Members made reference to the importance of a free press in the protection of civil liberties. A free press is fundamental to the protection of civil liberties. The same Members, however, mentioned concerns about excessive concentration. Concentration is a fact of life right across the European Union, and to the extent that it interferes with the free exercise of comment or dulls the capacity of a free press to act as a protector of all our liberties, such concentration is a cause for concern.
I thank Members for the very interesting and stimulating debate. I also want to thank Members for the kind words they had to say about the Irish presidency. I can assure you that the presidency, in carrying forward the Council's work, will give careful consideration to the points that have been made today.
I congratulate the rapporteur on this report. We may not agree with every single word and every comment in the report, but it is incredibly important that we hold a mirror up to ourselves from time to time to see if we can meet our own high standards. This report certainly helps in that regard."@en1
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