Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-13-Speech-3-061"
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"en.20041013.4.3-061"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the people of Europe ask, when foreign policy is being debated, why they should be interested in it. What, they ask, do we as Europeans actually have to do with the topic? The sense of not being involved is something I frequently experience when I meet visitors who have come to listen to debates in this House. ‘What business is that of ours, actually?’ Let me pick up on something that Commissioner Patten said, that, if peace in the Middle East is unattainable or hard to achieve, it is, in the long term, our own security that is also increasingly destabilised as a result of the increasing radicalisation of people which is associated with the failure to achieve peace. There is a causal connection between this regional conflict and worldwide radicalisation.
For that reason, we Europeans are directly affected, and that is why we are part of the road map, to which – as everyone has said – there can be no alternative. It is good that the Prime Minister of Israel, in his statement on Monday, gave his backing to it.
Commissioner Patten, you referred to Hecuba. Rather than delve so deeply into the world of drama, I just want to quote a sentence that I cannot get out of my head about terrorism and torture. It is this: ‘At the end of any series of cruel acts, their source no longer matters; we just want them to stop.’ That is how many of the people affected feel, and it is understandable, but it is not enough. That statement is inadequate, for those who commit the acts of cruelty need to be shown where the limits are. Those who understand only the language of violence – and they are present on both sides – need to be isolated.
It is true to say that the reform of the security forces is tied together with this phenomenon. Reforming the security forces and the police means playing a part in ensuring that the scope available to the men of violence for their activities is limited. The radicals can, above all, be kept in check by working hand in hand with the moderates. That Egypt and other moderate Arab states have offered to cooperate with Israel in bringing about a ceasefire is a good sign, but it is an offer that the Israeli side must accept. There must then be a dialogue between equals, rather than exclusive negotiations in which mutual dialogue is abandoned when demands are made and not met.
We, then, as Europeans, need the courage to encourage and openly back those in the region who are prepared to commence dialogue with one another, without preconditions if at all possible. That is the substantial contribution that we Europeans can and must make. It also involves committing ourselves to the two-state model. Let me add at this point that the two-state model cannot be a matter of withdrawal from the West Bank and nothing more. The viability of the second state must also be guaranteed, and Mr Laschet is right to say that that requires that funds be mobilised for reconstruction, and we must commit ourselves to that, for it is in the interests of our own security to do so."@en1
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