Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-13-Speech-1-098"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2004-12-13"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Turkey's progress towards accession2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20041213.10.1-098"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2004-12-13-Speech-1-0992
lpv:speaker	lp:Tatjana Ždanoka2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, as has been mentioned, the majority of human rights activists in Turkey – Leyla Zana among them – are of the opinion that a positive decision on the Turkish application to join the EU will contribute to an improvement in Turkish policy on ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. They have good reasons for saying this. Human rights activists in Latvia were of the same opinion when discussions on Latvia's candidacy for membership of the EU were held. Unfortunately, Latvian human rights activists are now highly disillusioned. It is true that under pressure from the European institutions some changes were made in legislation concerning problems essential for minorities. However, these changes were cosmetic. For example, improvements to the law on languages were intended to benefit only one particular linguistic minority: English-speaking businessmen. We see the same urgent cosmetic steps taking place in Turkey. For example, the Turkish Government has allowed private language centres to open, offering courses in Kurdish, Romanian and other tongues. A private language centre is something essentially different from what we would recognise as a school – a term used in Mr Eurlings' report. My country, Latvia, became a Member State of the EU, in spite of the fact that the Latvian authorities did not recognise the rights of linguistic minorities. It was a mistake for EU institutions not to use Latvia's accession process to promote the fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria. This history must not be repeated in the case of Turkish accession. We hope that in 15 years Turkey will fulfil the political criteria completely. We call on the Commission to use every opportunity to urge the Turkish Government to recognise the Kurdish minority in the country and to create the conditions necessary for this minority to be respected and protected."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3,3 member; LIBE (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3,3 member; G/EFA (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3,3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3,3 substitute; AFET (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3,3 unknown; Politisko organizāciju savienība "Par cilvēka tiesībām vienotā Latvijā" (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3,3 substitute; DROI (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3,3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Ždanoka (Verts/ALE )."1

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