Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-05-Speech-3-199"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060405.18.3-199"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today, this House has once again sent out a strong message, and your contributions have shown something that I regard as quite vital, and for which I am grateful, namely that you support and acknowledge the efforts of the Commission and the Council. It is important for the European Union to speak with one voice on this matter and to send the right signal. The Council and, I am sure, the Commission, too, will continue to work to this end.
Mr Klich and others after him raised the issue of exerting influence on Russia. I would remind you that the declaration appended to the European Council's conclusions already explicitly states that we need to find ways of getting our international partners, and in particular Belarus' other neighbours, involved in this debate. There is absolutely no doubt that this matter obviously also needs to be raised with Russia, an important neighbour of Belarus. You can be assured that the Council will not avoid this subject in its dealings with Russia – we have just had a debate on human rights, and there will be other opportunities for this. We were also asked, hopefully rhetorically, whether we were afraid. All I can say to that is no, we are not afraid. We know full well what our values are, and we quite clearly stand up for them.
Many of you pointed out that the relaxation of visa rules must apply specifically and concretely to those people who we want to receive here and show how western democracy works. That is, of course, inseparable from certain administrative issues. We are working on it – we want to invite the right people and give them the opportunity to come here. Conversely, it has also been demanded in the debate that we must put the right people, namely those responsible, on the visa ban list.
The distinction between the visa ban that was already in place before the elections and the current situation is that, previously, only officials were affected, whereas we are now doing exactly what many of you called for: we want to target the politicians responsible. Somebody asked what the Council was going to do next week, on 10 April: we will, to be quite specific, adopt such a list, and then there will be no further barriers to implementation.
The Council will also look into other possible sanctions and measures, in which connection we really must be very careful not to take any action that ultimately does the opposite of what we want to achieve. We must not put people at unnecessary risk through our actions. We want to protect them, including Mr Milinkevich, and we want to send a clear signal that we are on the side of the population and those people who are exercising their rights.
You can therefore be assured that the Council will continue to work very seriously and vigorously and very specifically on those measures that are ultimately of use and that achieve the goal for which we are all aiming, namely democratisation and the inclusion of this country in the EU's neighbourhood programmes. That, at the end of the day, is what this is all about. We must tell the people, and show them, that it is to their advantage for the conditions to be met, so that this country too, just like Ukraine and other countries, can be included in the European neighbourhood programme.
Another goal is for this country to join the Council of Europe, for it is the only one still not a member of it. That is not possible at the moment, because only countries that are willing and able to respect the human rights laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights can join the Council of Europe. The intention is that Belarus should, one day, be able to do that, and the Council will continue to work towards that goal."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples