Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-17-Speech-3-319"
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"en.20081217.22.3-319"2
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"Madam President, today, we once again find ourselves having an important debate on the subject of promoting human rights, setting the tone, as it does, for the position and role of the European Parliament and the European Union. It also determines, to some extent, who we are. As Europeans, we attach great value to respecting each individual’s universal and indefeasible rights, wherever in the world that individual may be. Whilst our shared values, equal opportunities and respect for fundamental rights form an inherent part of the European Treaties and the basis of the European Union, it is far less obvious that we call each other to account when things go wrong. This report by Mr Catania is right to flag this up, and I should like to congratulate the rapporteur and all those who have helped him on this approach.
I would like to ask the Commissioner how he feels about the idea that we, in the European Union, need to reconsider whether it might not be possible to draw up better rules for calling each other to account where we think that there are issues relating to human rights.
I should like to focus on one particular topic from the report, namely the situation of the Roma in the European Union. They are not only the most discriminated-against community in Europe, they are also a transnational minority who are spread across many borders. Following the outbreak of violence against the Roma in Italy, now more than a year ago, we clearly saw the failings of the strictly national competence to guarantee the respect of their rights.
The primary responsibility for the care of residents lies, of course, with the Member States, but each Member State is required to do this within the boundaries of European and international treaties. All too often, though, we are forced to observe that the Member States resort to what is known as the principle of non-intervention. Minority issues are regarded as a national preserve. That is no longer acceptable, to my mind. As I said, we should enter into debate and consider if we could make agreements within the European Union about how we deal with human rights violations within the EU and put a stop to the policy of not daring to call each other to account."@en1
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