Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-030"
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"en.20050223.5.3-030"2
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"Mr President, the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in Lebanon has reawakened the argument surrounding the EU-Syria association agreement and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, just when the Bush and Chirac governments are making peace with each other around the idea of a free and sovereign Lebanon.
The European Parliament’s position on the sovereign right of nations to self-determination has always been very clear. It has consistently rejected any form of overt or covert occupation, be it in Palestine, Iraq or other countries of the world. For a great variety of reasons, however, most often political and historical ones, action has rarely been taken against foreign forces.
Today, the death of Mr Hariri, whose unknown assassins are still on the loose, again raises this question and many others. Should we or should we not ask the Syrians to refrain from all interference in Lebanese affairs? My answer is yes. Should they at last put an end to the state of emergency in which their country has been for over 30 years? Yes. Should they thoroughly democratise their society and release activists from prison? My answer is clear, it is yes. Should they withdraw their troops from Lebanon? Yes, and they have started to do so. Should we, as General Morillon suggests, make signing the Syria-EU cooperation agreement dependent on these conditions, and in particular the immediate withdrawal of all Syrian troops from Lebanon? That is my question to the Council.
The question is crucial. Mr Hariri’s death has both everything and nothing to do with the answer. This assassination must certainly be fully investigated and there must be an international inquiry. Having said that, I really want to ask the Council whether it is appropriate to sign an agreement that has been awaited for so long, since it is the last of the MEDA agreements and has been deferred so many times. Once it is signed, whether we like it or not, this agreement will inevitably be in the spotlight, and we, the European Union, will be forced to justify our idea of European foreign policy and its democratic basis to public opinion. That is no idle question, it is a question that I ask myself and that we are all asking ourselves."@en1
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