Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-04-Speech-1-007"
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"en.20060904.3.1-007"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, several events have taken place since we were last together before the summer. I would like to mention them in order to provide a context for our work and in order to inform you of the activities of Parliament’s bodies over the summer.
Everyone is aware that this is the biggest military mission the European Union has ever undertaken, that it represents a challenge in terms of our political credibility and that, in addition to our role of peace keepers in an area that affects us very directly, the Union has the opportunity to support diplomatic action throughout the region and to relaunch the peace process between Israel and Palestine.
The second issue that has kept us busy over the summer is the influx of illegal immigrants from Africa, particularly on the shores of the Canary Islands and Lampedusa.
I have been in constant contact with Commissioner Frattini, whom I would like to thank for the decisions he has taken and for the impetus he has given to cooperation amongst the countries of Europe in resolving certain cases of illegal immigration that are particularly dramatic from a humanitarian point of view.
We should be aware, however, that 10 000 people have arrived in Lampedusa this summer and 20 000 in the Canary Islands – almost 2 000 just yesterday. That figure is four times higher than last year and hundreds of people have died at sea trying to cross it.
We must also be aware that those people do not want to stay in Lampedusa or in Lanzarote. They want to get to Europe. What is happening there therefore affects all of us. It affects Europe as a whole, in terms of both its immigration policy and its development policy.
I would like to draw Parliament’s attention, the attention of all of us, to the fact that we are not dealing with an emergency of an exceptional nature which only arises from time to time: we are dealing with a structural problem that is going to become more serious every summer because the income and demographic differences between Europe and Africa will increase this immigration, and Europe must respond by implementing a policy of development in Africa and cooperation amongst the European countries, to this end implementing a common immigration policy.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I must point out that, as you know, this summer we have also seen the preparation of an attack on an immense scale against the airlines linking the United Kingdom and the United States, reminding us that we are still facing the threat of terrorism. We have also been reminded of this by the fatal attacks in Turkey, in which European citizens have lost their lives.
This must increase our efforts to tackle the phenomenon of terrorism, using acceptable methods that respect our freedoms.
During this part-session, on Thursday, we will have the opportunity to debate the sensitive issue of the personal data of passengers on commercial flights, which is still of concern to us. In this regard, I must inform you that Ireland has appealed against the Directive on data retention, and this calls into question the delicate balance that we had achieved between Council and Parliament.
These are the events that will characterise the work that Parliament must do from now on.
Firstly, the war in Lebanon: given the tragic events that were taking place, I felt that Parliament could not remain on holiday and had to react. I therefore called an extraordinary Conference of Presidents of political groups that was held on 20 July.
That Conference of Presidents approved a clear statement that was considerably more vigorous than that of the Union’s Foreign Affairs Council that had taken place beforehand on 17 July. In it, we called for an immediate ceasefire in the region; we were also the first to call for an international force to be deployed within the framework of the United Nations, with significant European Union participation.
The chairmen of the political groups called unanimously for the Union’s institutions and Member States to speak with one voice. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
On 1 August, in view of the continued escalation of violence and the attacks against civilian populations, the Conference of Presidents held another extraordinary meeting, this time open to all Members of Parliament. That Conference of Presidents roundly condemned the attacks on civilian populations, such as those that had just taken place against the Lebanese town of Canna. We again appealed to the Council to call for an immediate ceasefire.
In accordance with the resolutions of that Conference of Presidents, I negotiated a statement by the Bureau of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, which was published on 7 August – a statement unanimously approved by the members of that Bureau, the Presidents of the Parliaments of Tunisia, Egypt and Greece and myself. It was the first time that European and Arab political leaders had expressed a united position on this crisis.
On 24 August, the Bureau of the EMPA met in Brussels; it had previously summoned all of the MEPs who are members of that Assembly. The EMPA Bureau approved a statement that called for European participation in the intervention force and decided to send a delegation to Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Finally, on 25 August, as you know, the governments of the Union’s Member States decided to respond to our appeals for action and also to the appeals to them from the United Nations to send a significant contingent of troops from European countries to operate on the ground.
As you will appreciate, these meetings had to be called at extremely short notice and not every Member who might have decided or wished to take part in them could be notified of them in time. I regret that we had to hold those meetings so quickly and I am therefore delighted that we have included a debate on this issue on this first agenda."@en1
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