Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-08-Speech-3-723-000"
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"en.20110608.27.3-723-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am very grateful to Mr Bartolozzi for having made Mongolia the subject of a debate in the European Parliament by taking the initiative for this question. While various aspects of the former Soviet states of Central Asia have been dealt with in Parliament, Mongolia and its situation have received very little attention.
Quite unjustifiably so, for as a state of the former communist bloc, Mongolia exploited its independence at a very early stage and embarked upon a path of democratising its society. Mongolia came up with a democratic constitution as far back as 1992 and since then, a number of elections have taken place, which, according to observers, have generally been held democratically and correctly – which can by no means be taken for granted in the states of this region.
For some years, the Mongolian Government has been trying to fight corruption through the law and, in 2010, it passed a moratorium on the death penalty, something that even some major democratic states have not yet managed. Nonetheless, the three million people who live in this extensive country with its extreme climatic conditions are suffering the consequences of a process of transformation that is still under way. The population of the country – until now still overwhelmingly nomadic in lifestyle – is flocking to the few towns, which do not have the infrastructure to cope.
The country’s mineral resources are not being exploited in an environmentally sound way. Energy problems make civil and economic life more difficult. Squeezed between its large neighbours of Russia and China, the threat is that Mongolia will become even more dependent on these states than previously. The efforts and the successes of Mongolia – and here I see the glass as being half full, not half empty – in democratising its society should be recognised, because they set an example to the rest of the region and show what can be achieved despite a difficult past.
Mongolia should continue to receive our support, not just in the context of aid programmes, but by the European Union having a direct presence in the Mongolian capital through a separate delegation, as a sign that Europe is not indifferent to the fate of Mongolia; European interests should not continue to be looked after by a delegation in Beijing. I very much regret the fact that the Conference of Presidents was not prepared to emphasise this further by approving a parliamentary resolution."@en1
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