Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-012"
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"en.20070425.2.3-012"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow we will – together and as one – be adopting a resolution condemning the brutal treatment meted out to the demonstrators by the Russian armed forces, and our expectation is that there should be similar plain speaking during the EU/USA summit. Yes, of course, we want new economic relations, with a stronger trans-Atlantic relationship on a new footing, but it must be founded upon unequivocal values, the democratic values that the European Union has itself undertaken to defend.
After Guantanamo, after the torture and abduction of innocent people, we need a bridge, and what other bridge can there be than that we press the US administration to adopt, in future, a policy guided by democratic principles? When we talk about a moratorium on the death penalty – which we have done in recent weeks, and will do again in future – we do so not only in order to save potential victims in Iran from such a death, but also in the expectation that the Americans will agree to one.
When we talk about the war on terror, we likewise expect that fundamental values will be redefined on all sides and that parliamentary control will be extended, not only in the national parliaments, but also in this one, for what we have seen happening is something we cannot accept as really fighting terror, in that we are thereby cutting back fundamental freedoms for Europe, for people, and for societies.
As regards Afghanistan and Kosovo, I urge both sides that strategy change in Afghanistan needs to be paid more than mere lip service, but also needs to be put into practice; Operation ‘Enduring Freedom’ has no legal standing any more, and must be changed, but we Europeans, too, must come up with more money in order to make peaceful development in Afghanistan possible at all, specifically in the fight against drugs, in educating and supporting democratic citizens there, and women in particular.
The same applies in Kosovo; we cannot wait for the Americans to loosen this knot for us. I appeal once more to the European Union and to the foreign ministers to now give Kosovo its independence, in order that it may escape another war.
As for Iran, the time has come to abandon the idea of regime change to which Bush is still attached; that, together with negotiations, is the only way to prevent the next war, and I hope that the EU will unambiguously commit itself to that."@en1
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