Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-05-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20080605.2.4-017"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, the challenges involved in Europe’s relationship with the people of the southern shore of the Mediterranean far exceed those of a simple neighbourhood relationship.
It is perhaps a peaceful future that hangs in the balance in this region of unparalleled division. The reasons for this situation are very clear to see. The first is the economic imbalance. Thirteen years after the launch of the Barcelona Process, not only has the promised shared prosperity not materialised; the gaps have grown wider. In fact, the obsession with free trade has taken precedence over the goal of development. In order to succeed tomorrow where we failed yesterday, a change of direction is needed. I do not see this, however.
The second problem is the humiliating treatment of migrants. The population of these countries is very young. The people want to live yet they do not see any future. Although they are deeply attached to their land, their culture, the history of their civilisation and its impressive contributions – all due respect to Mr Berlusconi – many of them are looking to Europe and they see their emigrant brothers and sisters suffering the affronts of which we are all aware: from profiling to discrimination, from detention centres to ‘refoulement’.
In this regard, too, the gap has increased dramatically. Talking about a dialogue of cultures and bringing the people closer together without putting an end to these practices has absolutely no credibility whatsoever.
Finally, there is Europe’s inertia regarding the Palestinian problem. There will be the retort that the Union and its Member States are Palestine’s largest donors; that is true and it is a good thing. However, any observer will confirm, as the EP delegation that has just returned from the Middle East has just done, that without a firm European commitment on a political level, this aid will resolve none of the real issues.
In other words, what is expected of Europe in the Southern Mediterranean in this respect is that it finally overcomes what the former representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr de Soto, quite rightly called self-censorship with regard to Israel and the persistent violations of international law and its own commitments.
Israel must understand – and it is the Union’s duty to help with this – that the normalisation of its relations with the region as a whole has a price, and that price is no more or no less than what is stipulated in the Peace Initiative of the Arab League, the Quartet’s Roadmap or the Annapolis Declaration, namely the end of the occupation and resulting barbarism, and the recognition of the Palestinian State within the borders as they stood in 1967.
Europe’s attitude to this matter is perhaps the decisive criterion in the success or failure of any attempt to relaunch the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
It is therefore recommended that the European Union-Israel Association Council meeting on 16 June give serious consideration to this when examining the Israeli request for the status of its partnership with the Union to be upgraded."@en1
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