Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-269"
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"en.20071211.36.2-269"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I will be very brief. Firstly, on the report presented and debated here today and on the manner of this debate, I must thank you for your support. In fact more than that, I must thank you for your recognition of the work carried out by the Council, the Commission and also the General Secretariat of the Council in preparing this report and its contents. The comments we have heard have been music to our ears as they have recognised the detail, the merits and the effort put into this report. We have also heard criticisms, specifically that we could here and there have improved the analysis and gone deeper into the causes and consequences. This report is definitely heading that way: it is more analytical, or aims to be so, than previous reports and you should not be in any doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that we will continue along these lines as you have advised and suggested.
Comments were also made on the substance. There was one Member who said that Europe has done something, or has done a great deal, but there is still a long way to go. I believe that Europe is probably the greatest area of freedom, justice, human rights and rule of law. It has followed a consistent and constant path in its ever stronger and more solid defence of human rights. However, it is clear that there is always more that can be done because we will never reach the end in terms of freedom and human rights: there will always be something to defend, to develop, to protect and to safeguard. However, we should recognise that, both internally and also externally, the European Union has done a great deal. A recent case was cited: the decisions or measures that we have adopted in the area, for example, of the protection of children’s rights. We have done this.
I would also point out four or five initiatives in the area of human rights that indisputably prove what the EU is trying to do in terms of defending these human rights. Here, tomorrow, we will solemnly proclaim the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In this half of 2007, the European Union has secured the adoption, in the United Nations, of a resolution on a moratorium on the death penalty. We have established the European Agency of Fundamental Rights which is in its final stages of preparation. We have also created the European Day Against the Death Penalty. These are concrete, specific and recent examples of how our work to defend human rights is continuous, persistent and solid. We must accept that there will be problems and that there will be measures or actions or attitudes that may be less than perfect!
Yet we must also recognise the great successes that we have had in this area. Specifically in terms of external action, reference was made to the EU-Africa Summit which will be debated next. There can be no doubt that the issue of human rights and good governance was an important, in fact, a very important issue in the dialogue that we held in Lisbon during the EU-Africa Summit. You all know, ladies and gentlemen, as do all European citizens, that, in our dialogue with third countries, the issue of the defence of human rights is a constant and priority theme on our agenda and in our bilateral dialogue. This is proven by our condemnation whenever violations of human rights occur in third countries and by the measures that we have taken in response to violations of human rights in third countries, in particular by adopting sanctions which are specifically aimed at preventing these violations from reoccurring. We should therefore recognise our merits and the efforts that we have made. Of course we must also correct what can be corrected, but we should have, on this issue, a confident and positive attitude and a belief that we are on the right road in line with our humanist traditions."@en1
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