Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-26-Speech-3-336"
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"en.20051026.22.3-336"2
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"Madam President, the Mediterranean region is important for the Member States and for the European Union as a whole. It is clear that the countries of the southern flank do not enjoy the same level of political development and/or economic prosperity. Nevertheless, the majority of these countries have to deal with various shortcomings, to a greater or lesser degree: political shortcomings, lack of democratic development and limited pluralism; economic shortcomings, because we are talking about antiquated economies, which do not have the capacity to generate employment for a growing population and are not sufficiently attractive to bring in the necessary foreign investment; and social shortcomings, high poverty and social inequality, illiteracy, discrimination against women — as has been mentioned — the public institutions’ lack of capacity, with negative consequences in terms of health, education, the economy, border control, and many other things.
The Mediterranean region must therefore be treated as a priority by the Union, not only due to the many historical, political, economic and social ties linking the countries of both flanks, but also for other reasons, such as security, including the terrorist threat, or the challenge of immigration. Cooperation between both flanks is therefore essential and must cover a very broad range of activities. Cooperation must operate in both directions — I repeat — in both directions.
The problems of these neighbouring countries affect us, ours is a shared future; it is impossible to create a wall between the north and the south of the Mediterranean, especially in today’s globalised world. We must therefore enhance our relations with these countries, stimulate them and help them to overcome the shortcomings that I referred to earlier.
The report that we will approve tomorrow therefore insists on the need for political, economic, social and institutional modernisation and also improvements in relation to human rights. In this regard, I welcome the Commissioner’s words and the importance she attaches to these issues.
We need impetus for reform — and I believe that we should all agree on this — on the southern flank. The European Union must not concern itself solely with the stability of those countries; stability cannot ultimately become an excuse for not moving forward. If we insist on the need for reforms in our countries, how can we not insist on the need for reforms in their countries? These countries must evolve. Otherwise, the problems will increase, and political and economic crises — including in the field of immigration and security — will only increase and ultimately it will be a lack of reform that brings instability.
Hence the importance of the Barcelona Process and the European Neighbourhood Policy. They must be fundamental instruments for the Union with a view, firstly, to demonstrating to those countries that they are priorities within our foreign action and, naturally, to helping them, to demanding that they also cooperate faithfully with us on resolving these problems affecting us and, finally, in order to stimulate them towards reform. A reform that can bring prosperity, freedom and, ultimately, more stability for these countries and hence for the whole of the Mediterranean basin.
I would like the next Barcelona Summit to be up to the challenge and I would of course like to end by thanking Mrs Jäätteenmäki for her efforts."@en1
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