Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-020-000"
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"en.20110511.4.3-020-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Members for their contributions.
I have already talked about the flotilla, some of the issues concerning the Palestinian authority and the discussions that are going on – Mr Belder, you raised them too – between Fatah and Hamas. I made it clear that our position on Hamas has not changed, but I made it clear that we support ways in which President Abbas can bring unity with Palestinians with his technocratic government and with elections, which is going to be so important. We have not changed our position, and we are very clear that we are cautious in looking at this situation.
I also wanted to make some reference to what Mr Bisky said when he talked about the poorest in the world: ‘support life with dignity’ was his expression. I think what we do with the Millennium Development Goals and the work that we are doing in collaboration in bringing development together is going to be so important for that in the future.
Just quickly – because I do not want to take up too much time – I want to talk to Mr Albertini about his report and to quote from it. He talks about coherence and says ‘Coherence requires, first and foremost, the political will of the EU Member States to overcome their differing outlooks’. Absolutely. We know that, if we are going to be successful in implementing Lisbon fully – and this is what the report says – we need that sustainable funding in the next framework as well. I agree with the report in so many ways, but especially on the need to be proactive in promoting our values and in using all of the policy instruments that we have. I am also keen to improve the dialogue that we have.
One of the greatest difficulties we have is time – how much time to spend – and I want to make sure that we are using the best possible time in discussions with you. Mr Gualtieri, you and I had a good discussion yesterday. I agree about the importance of moving forward, particularly on pooling and sharing which will be part of the discussion with the Defence Ministers next week. We have got to make sure that we use the resources of Europe more effectively. It is a very simple idea to pool and share, but it is very powerful. We have big military potential, largely untapped, so decisions to use military assets and to support each other in pooling and sharing are something that we need to take forward. We are also trying to improve the work of the European Defence Agency and to take up some of the challenges that we have clearly seen in the responses that we have had in recent weeks, especially in Libya.
Finally, I would like to thank Ms Muñiz De Urquiza for this report and for her support on the UN. I think in the work that I did at the UN last week I have demonstrated my personal commitment to the power of multilateral action. We have got to look at the EU in the UN system and in all of the other international organisations. We have got to be clearer in our voice and more prominent and more creative in what we do.
That just leaves me to thank the first round of speakers and to say that I look forward to some final remarks at the end.
One of the themes that came through very much in what all of the group leaders said – although Mr Tannock pointed out that his group had never been in favour of the EEAS – was the desire to see, if we have one, the unified approach. I agree. I do not lack any ambition for what Europe can be. What I have to deal with is the reality of what we actually are. We passed a Treaty, and I joked that when the Treaty was passed, I was handed it and given a pencil and those were the resources that I began with. It is pretty much true, but we are not where we will be. The challenge we have is how to make sure that, not just this House and the desire of honourable Members with the passion that I feel here, but also the Commission, the Council, the Foreign Affairs Council, the Development Council, the Defence Ministers – all things that I chair and am responsible for bringing together – move with that same ambition. It does not surprise me at all, and I do not think it surprised honourable Members either, that on the way to this, particularly at a time when so many things are happening, we find that it does not necessarily work as effectively as you would like, or indeed sometimes as I would like.
What we need to do is continue that level of ambition for where we want to get to. That applies in everything we do, whether it is the sanctions we impose – where we need the 27 because we need unanimity – or whether it is in the approach that we take on support for the countries of Egypt and Tunisia. As Mr Verhofstadt said, we need the support of the Commission to really move and change and have a new strategy and a new ambition in the long and the short term.
Well, we support people right now. All of these things require us to shift and make changes. We are on that journey. I am not complacent about it at all, but I am realistic about exactly where we are. You can challenge me – and you should as often as you like – to try and make this move faster, and I will do so. But do not accuse me of a lack of initiative, of not being ambitious for it, and of not saying this loud and clear in the Foreign Affairs Council, in the media and elsewhere, because that is not true. I am really ambitious for this. I am really determined that Europe can be so much more than it is, but it requires us to get on that journey and stay on it together. It is difficult for individual Member States with individual constituencies to necessarily always be able to look at this through the lens of what is best for Europe in the world, and not what is best for the domestic situation. I understand that too.
I agree with what Mr Daul said about neighbourhood terrorism and the Middle East peace process as being some of the key objectives that we have in terms of the work we do this year. It is why we have been so engaged, for example in Libya, on bringing together the regional organisations – the African Union, the Arab League, the UN and the OIC. This is really significant work in terms of thinking through how we are going to move forward in a process that it is currently extremely difficult. How do we get to the point where Gaddafi has to go? We have the dialogue where people can see the future, and that work goes on all the time. It is absolutely critical and it requires us to have a united front.
Mr Schulz said that there is a long way to go. I agree. We have much more that we need to do, and we need to make sure that the building of democracy is a big part of that journey, but we are on that journey as well in terms of what we can do. I like the three ‘C’s. I think we can become much more coherent. I think we can be better in cooperation and, of course, communautaire is the objective I know this Parliament has. So please keep the pressure on me, but do so also in terms of Member States.
Regarding the Marshall Plan, I think what General George Marshall did with the initial USD 13 billion that he got from Congress in 1948 is an extremely good model. It is a good model, too, because of the different things he did. He got loans, services, advisers and the breadth of things that could make a difference, so I think that it is a good model. It is not the plan we talk about for obvious reasons. People want something that is new and for them, but it is significant. I agree with you about the support and the issues of debt. That is why we are in discussion with countries with whom those countries have that relationship, and it is also why we are in discussion with the Commission.
I agree about the terrible violence in Syria. I am not in any way lacking in ambition for what we should do with Syria. What we have got is again a journey on sanctions. We started with the 13 people who were directly involved in the repression of the regime. There was a lot of discussion, Mr Cohn-Bendit, about whether President Assad should be on and there were lots of different views. I cannot just give you a list of Member States who said yes or no. There were strong views about how we do this, bearing in mind some of the situations. The decision was taken that for the first list, no, but we will look at it again this week. I assure you that my determination is to put the maximum political pressure that we can on Syria and to try and make sure – as I did when I spoke to Foreign Minister Moallem yesterday – that they understand the significance of what they are doing and that they take this closing window to actually change course and make a difference.
Mr Tannock, you talked about many things to do with the support of the 27, your desire to see us get the proper resources and being short-changed. I do not think we are short-changed. The institutions of Europe are all focused in the same direction. We have got to make sure that the ambitions that you have for what we can achieve can actually be realised. I have to find the resources for opening an office in Benghazi. Supporting better our delegations in Iraq, which some honourable Members discussed with me this morning, requires resources. We have to find them, both by being better and more efficient – I agree with that – but also by recognising what we have to do."@en1
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