Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-01-Speech-3-025"
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"en.20060201.11.3-025"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the account that Mr Solana has given us of the way 2006 has started is a sobering one. In essence, what Mr Winkler had to say stressed the current presidency’s view that there are hard times ahead of us this year, and Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, for her part, said much the same thing. There are, then, challenges for us to face.
Europeans must be aware that what Mr Solana, Mr Winkler and Mrs Ferrero-Waldner have set out is none other than the neighbourhood policy of the European Union, on whose doorstep lie the crisis regions that they have described. They are at a critical stage in their development, and there are risks inherent in that which threaten every single citizen of this Union of ours; there is no other way of putting it.
If one turns from that to consider Mr Brok’s description, in his report on the current state of European foreign policy in the hands of the executive institutions, of the instruments available to the institutions themselves and to us in this House, one finds that an equally sobering account.
More than ever before, the European Union’s foreign policy is a core element in European policymaking, and it is worth noting, as Mr Brok rightly points out, that it is one that the people want and support. Let us, though, be honest with ourselves: we do not have enough of the instruments that a European policy requires in order to be effective and faithful to its task, and so we in this House must insist on improvements being made in this area.
Let us take Ukraine as an example: a year ago, we all saw how effectively we can act when we are present on the ground with all our capacities bundled together in the persons of Javier Solana, the High Representative of our Union, empowered to speak and act on behalf of all of us; the Polish President, Mr Kwasniewski, as the head of an immediately adjoining state, with good opportunities for exercising influence in the country and with constant backup from other Heads of Government, who can in turn influence other stakeholders – the Russian Government, for example – through the European Union – these men helped to bring the Orange Revolution to a peaceful conclusion. A year has now gone by, and today we hear, from Ukrainian visitors to this House, that many of the things achieved over the past year are again at risk and are being rolled back. I do not need to add to the description of the threat presented by the energy situation, by which, of course, Ukraine is also seriously affected.
How, actually, is it possible that what we celebrated with such enthusiasm a year ago should now – within the space of a year – be rolled back in such a way? This is something we have to think about, and Mr Winkler is right to say that we have to do so in the context of the financial perspective, for it is quite unacceptable that the Council should, every time it meets, broadcast to the world our need to undertake international commitments, and then make cuts in the funding that such commitments require.
One thing that is perfectly clear, then, not least in terms of the financial situation, is that we have to commit ourselves to what is needed to bring what stability we can to the Middle East. Hamas must indeed renounce violence, but the EU must also keep its word, and we have to talk to Hamas if we are not to make the mistake that was made in Algeria of not recognising a legitimate election. We have to be clear in our own minds about that, for our keeping our word is another contribution to peace. If we do that, we can also demand that the others – Hamas in particular – move towards democracy, and in that I hope that we will succeed."@en1
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