Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-08-Speech-4-050"
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"en.20091008.5.4-050"2
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"Madam President, I have to confess I was rather shocked by the statement of Commissioner Reding because, indeed, the Member States are primarily responsible for ensuring respect for democracy and fundamental rights. But you are wrong if you say that the EU has no role to play here.
First of all, there is Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, which reads: ‘The Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are common to the Member States.’ And to prove that that was not just a hollow statement, the European Union furnished itself with Article 7 – the legal instrument to enforce Article 6.
Secondly, Mrs Reding, when we are negotiating with candidate states, we insist that they apply the highest standards of press freedom, otherwise they cannot join the European Union. This demand has been laid down in the Copenhagen criteria – so why do we apply different standards to candidate states from those applied to current Member States, Commissioner Reding? There are other countries where there are violations of press freedom or freedom of speech, such as the Czech Republic, which has just passed a law restricting the freedom of the press, or Ireland, which has passed a draconian blasphemy law. Commissioner Reding, I conclude by saying that if we are serious about being a Community of values, then the European Commission needs to act."@en1
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