Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-032"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040914.3.2-032"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Vice-President of the Commission, unfortunately the European Union has abandoned the concept of ‘Wider Europe’ in the context of Eastern Europe. Today this concept refers to North Africa, and the EU’s priorities lie with the Maghreb and Mashreq, rather than Belarus or Ukraine. This is bad news, and it means that the gulf between the democratic and wealthy Europe and Eastern Europe can and will deepen. This is not only bad news for them, it is also bad news for the European Union. It is obvious that the situation in Belarus is deteriorating. Newspapers and political parties are being closed down and people imprisoned. Should the EU’s reaction be to turn our back? Are we to be like Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands? Let us not forget the disastrous results which this had 2 000 years ago.
Contacts with Minsk should therefore now be stepped up, Mrs De Palacio, not scaled down. Human rights and democratic freedoms must be constantly emphasised.
The situation in Belarus is becoming ever more grave. President Lukashenko has announced the possibility of restrictions on presidential terms of office being abolished. He may be hoping to become president for life. This is an even more pressing reason not to create a new Berlin Wall on the EU’s new eastern borders, on Poland’s borders with Belarus and with Ukraine. Belarus is not on Mars, it has common borders with the EU. Let us therefore not ask for whom the bell tolls, let us repeat after Ernest Hemingway that it ‘tolls for thee’, for Europe. The EU must take action on the issue of Belarus, we must not remain mere newspaper readers. The proposal to send a special delegation of observers to Belarus, to observe the outcome of the election, should therefore be supported.
I also believe that the representatives of the Belarussian democratic opposition should be invited to the European Parliament. Passivity on this issue, and pretence that the problem will solve itself is, in the words of Talleyrand, worse than a crime, it is a blunder. The European Union should not act like a certain tribe in Africa which believes that if it does not talk about a problem or a disease, and does not mention its name, the problem will cease to exist. On the contrary, the EU must talk about Belarus and talk details, Mrs de Palacio."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples