Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-11-Speech-3-117"
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"en.20091111.16.3-117"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Ferrero-Waldner, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, I would like to stress clearly that good neighbourly and mutually beneficial relations between the European Union and Russia are very important. However, such relations require good will on both sides, something that President Havel indeed referred to today in his afternoon speech.
Ladies and gentlemen, we all know that Russia has always valued strong partners highly. And today’s preparation for the summit taking place in a week’s time actually shows, as far as the European Union is concerned, that if we want to, we can speak with one voice. And this is very important – as is indeed shown by the resolution we have prepared – and in listening therefore to the council and the representatives of the Commission, I have a very good feeling about this. Also, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, needless to say, creates a larger and wider basis for this.
Now, though, let us look at this from the point of view of Russia. Actually, Russia has a very good opportunity next week to show a sincere desire to cooperate with us, whether in areas such as energy security or the preparation of a new framework agreement between the European Union and Russia, or, for example, guidelines for behaviour and thought on Russia’s part in moving towards the WTO. It is true that at the moment, there are some ambivalent attitudes: President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin have given out different signals. I very much hope that next week, the European Union will gain some clarity on what kind of course Russia will therefore take towards the WTO. And certainly the European Union, I think, must support Russia in its movement towards the WTO.
Certainly, however, a very important issue on which Russia can demonstrate its cooperation with us is in cooperating and reaching an agreement on the area of climate change. This is something very concrete, and it is taking place very soon – in December at the Copenhagen Summit – and this is truly a matter where we should be able to weigh everything up and look at whether this cooperation between the European Union and Russia is therefore possible or not.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has very frequently been said over the past year that relations between the European Union and Russia should be made more pragmatic, and already I myself have heard people question this point: whether therefore, the European Union is just throwing aside human rights, basic values and the subject of democracy. I think that on no account should we do this, because if we did, then we would devalue ourselves completely, as well as the European Union as a whole. And bringing up human rights is not in any way to persecute Russia, push them into the corner or lecture them; bringing up human rights is, first and foremost, about looking after the people living in Russia; that is, protecting ordinary citizens.
And black clouds in the area of human rights are actually coming to Moscow once more, because – as you heard yesterday – the constitutional court has discussed the possible reinstatement of the death penalty from next year, and for liberals this is definitely a very tough subject. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot say more on this subject here, but certainly as far as the conflicts are concerned, we intend to bring them up for discussion and we should definitely discuss them."@en1
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