Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-269"
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"en.20071113.30.2-269"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this debate has brought forth many practical suggestions as well as some interesting thoughts.
I believe that one strategic policy issue is how to progress from cooperation to a genuine partnership, so as ultimately to achieve membership of a real Euro-Mediterranean common area. Mr Pannella's idea is of great interest, and clearly such a strategy requires long-term thinking on our part. Only once there is a true Euro-Mediterranean single area will there be a joint sense of belonging that prompts us to work towards the shared goal now being established. We first had to obtain the consensus of all 27 Member States; now we are consulting with our partners on the southern shore. The way forward has been mapped out.
The second very practical idea, which I shall definitely take up at the Euromed meeting, is an appeal to all participants at that meeting to ensure that their respective countries ratify the existing international conventions. Before dreaming up any new rules, let us bear in mind that very few countries have ratified and implemented some extremely important international conventions. I am thinking, among others, about the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. If there is one subject on which a convention must be ratified immediately, it is the international trafficking and trade in human beings.
The third idea comes from Mr Gaubert, to whom I am particularly grateful for emphasising the humanitarian dimension of this major debate. We are not talking here about laws or bureaucratic matters; we are talking about women, men and children who - as others have said - are risking and often losing their lives. It is therefore a matter of solidarity. I believe that showing solidarity towards people who are suffering is the keystone in building a relationship genuinely based on equal rights for our partners.
The fourth idea which I shall take away from this debate is how to move on, to put it a little bluntly, from final documents to tangible action. We have drawn up numerous documents and, if the truth be told, we have mounted some significant practical initiatives. We must now build on these practical activities, for example by deciding how best to use development aid funds. Obviously, if we in the European Union have funds available to assist local development, we must also have the capacity to understand how best to spend them. As someone said, we must for example have ways of giving positive incentives to those partners, those countries which actively cooperate in our joint strategy.
Given that there is a common strategy, known since Barcelona as the Euro-Mediterranean strategy, and given that some countries are implementing it to a greater extent than others, I think those countries should be given an incentive, some positive recognition. This, in my opinion, is for example a meaningful way of eradicating corruption. Corruption is one of the root causes of illegal immigration. If there were less corruption in countries of origin, and if there were less corruption in transit countries, then many traffickers in human beings would be stopped en route to Europe and there would be more cooperation; but that is only one example.
Finally, there is the question of taking a credible, firm stance on unlawful conduct. Mr Magalhães emphasised this point and I fully agree: we have no credibility unless we demonstrate that unlawful conduct can be neither rewarded nor tolerated. We must be crystal clear about this. Some have touched on the subject of readmission agreements in this context. Readmission agreements lend credibility to our policy because people who fail to abide by our laws must be repatriated, with all due respect for their individual rights.
However, there is a political point here: states of origin which take back their fellow citizens cannot function as the European Union's border guards. I am putting this a little bluntly: they are not prepared to cooperate with us solely on security grounds.
For that reason, one topic I shall raise at this conference is how our policy on visas and the movement of persons can be used as a political incentive for those countries, for example in terms of greater mobility for students and business people. Let us use Europe’s visa policy to facilitate such freedom of movement, thereby sending out a positive political signal to the states with which we are seeking readmission agreements. We did so with the Western Balkans, and in my opinion the time has now come to envisage the same general approach for the Mediterranean."@en1
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