Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-06-Speech-3-473-000"
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"Madam President, can I first of all thank everyone who has contributed to what has been a long but truly important debate. When we began, I think it was Mr Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra who said that we had to make sure we met people’s expectations – those of our people and those of the people of the region we are seeking to support. In a sense, that idea frames all of the contributions that honourable Members have made in the course of the debate this afternoon.
Honourable Members have also worried about Iran. Of course we have enormous concern about what is happening in terms of the development of their nuclear weapons programme. As you know, I have worked very hard to try and get the talks moving. We have had two rounds. I have just written to Dr Saeed Jalili in response to his letter to me, saying once again that what we have put on the table remains there, and that we are open to ideas they might put forward for taking us into a new round of talks – but with the purpose of finding a solution.
We are also continuing our pressure on them for human rights violations. I said earlier that I have issued a statement today on what has been happening to women in Iran, but we have also taken action and sanctions against those who prevent people from having their human rights fully and properly recognised.
In addition, we discussed a number of what I would call rather more internal issues, so let me deal with those briefly. When we decide to have an EU Special Representative, we look for the person whom we believe can best do the job in hand. Stefan Füle and I and the 27 Foreign Ministers and other Commissioners spend a lot of our time in our neighbourhood and our region. We are your political eyes and ears. We are the people who perform that political function. Sometimes, a Special Representative who has ministerial experience is incredibly valuable, and sometimes we are looking for different skills. In the case of the Special Representative for the southern Mediterranean, I looked for somebody who had strong and long diplomatic experience, especially in that neighbourhood, to back up what Stefan Füle and I do – not to replace it but to back it up – by being able to bring together at a different level the type of people we bring together at a ministerial level.
In relation to the task force idea, a lot of work goes on internally. Stefan Füle particularly is tireless in bringing various people together, but what I was looking for was a response to those who say ‘You need to engage the international financial institutions and countries that wish to support the neighbourhood but to do it collaboratively with the EU’. At that level, it would be ministerial, and Stefan and I would be there, but the question is about how we bring in extra resources, through the EU Special Representatives, to do particular jobs. I know that Bernardino León – whose reputation goes before him, not just in Europe – will do a superb job on behalf of us all.
I do not rule out involving ministers. I know Miguel Moratinos well. To the Brazilians who were here, I extend my congratulations on their countryman’s appointment to the director-generalship of the FAO, but you will understand, too, that I may have supported my dear friend Miguel for that role. I hope we will see him engaged again in European issues, alongside many others whom honourable Members may propose.
I agree, too, about the involvement of local people in our planning. ‘Planning for Real’ was something in which I was engaged for many years, and it is about local people having the opportunity to work together to decide what their local communities will be. It is of absolutely core importance to having the sort of communities that are sustainable and can be developed for the future.
Ms Lunacek, specifically in response to your point about money: the figures are EUR 750 million of new money, and EUR 490 million either in programmes that are under-spent or in money we have recycled in other ways. So the total figure is much higher than you had feared. All of the indicative programmes are now being reviewed to make sure that they fit, and all of the instruments will be revised in order to make sure that they fit with the new strategy and, just as importantly, that they are tailored to be able to respond to the needs of each country. We are doing this as swiftly as we can because one of the challenges, as honourable Members have rightly pointed out, is to ensure we respond in good time to needs which are already very obvious.
Similar considerations apply in relation to mobility. We have proposed working with each country to establish mobility partnerships, visa facilitation agreements and visa liberalisation arrangements. We agree that mobility is really important, as is trade. I agree completely with those who argue that, by supporting engagement with the markets in these countries, and particularly with small businesses, which are the backbone of all economies, we will gain because we will be creating new markets for ourselves. And we know the consequences of not doing that.
It is true that we want to build the Union for the Mediterranean secretariat to take forward the six regional projects, and we are working on that right now.
I will finish with a couple of key points. First of all, in relation to the Middle East peace process, what I commit to is to do my best. We have worked very hard. I have spent more time, since I took office, on the Middle East peace process than on any other issue. We work tirelessly and we work with all parties, across the region and internationally, in trying to achieve what we all know is the right answer: two countries, side by side, living in peace and security for generations to come.
I have been struck by many of the different elements of those contributions. I was particularly struck that the word ‘dignity’ – one I did not use in my initial contribution – was used by so many honourable Members as a way of describing what we are seeking to develop as we support the people of the region in their future quest for democracy and human rights. I think dignity is exactly the right word.
The challenge for us is how to try, now even harder than ever, to make that scenario a reality on the ground. More than anything else, for the Palestinian people, the issue that is going to be of enormous significance in the coming weeks and months is that of getting a country that is sustainable – a state that is theirs. More than anything else, for the people of Israel, achieving that with the security of Israel at the heart of the arrangements is going to be what matters. From my point of view, this is not about being pro one side or the other. The desired solution is for both of them, and I want to see both of them achieving that as quickly as possible.
More than ever – with the changing neighbourhood and the challenges economically and politically – the time to do this is absolutely now. I will say that on Monday, and I will do my best to get us to the point that I know we have to be at. I am prepared to fail, by being prepared to be as strong as I possibly can be.
I agree on many of the things about which people feel passionately in relation to Gaza. I really understand that. Going into Gaza to see the circumstances there, particularly for children and young people, is really tough. It is really tough to see kids in schools that are running double shifts – children who want what our kids want, what all kids in Europe want, the same kind of lives – and knowing what the difficulties are. We have to find ways to alleviate the problems of Gaza and to deliver for the people I have met there who want everything that I want: economic security, a good education for their children, somewhere to live, to feel safe and to have a future. That is what we have to deliver and we have to deliver it in the best possible way. I think this is about getting the crossings open and finding a solution for the people of Gaza that brings them peace and security.
However, I have also seen the rockets that have been launched into Israel. I went and saw racks and racks of them, and I saw that children had to play underground because of fear of the rocket attacks. Again, we have to do what we are doing for both sides. We have to understand that the solution must give both communities the future and the security that people want, and we will do everything we can to that end.
Honourable Members, there are many points we could have discussed which I did not raise now because we have discussed them before. Camp Ashraf, I know, is really important. I get more letters from you on that than on any other matter, and you know that I am working with Foreign Ministers and internationally to try to find a suitable solution. Finding our way through that issue is very complicated and difficult, but we are engaged with it.
On the issues concerning religious groups, Coptic Christians and others, again this is something I raise with all of the countries concerned and something about which we have not forgotten.
My final point concerns South Sudan. When I leave tonight, I will head back to Brussels and then out to Juba to represent the European Union at the birth of a new country. I met with the Foreign Minister from the north this week and I made it very clear to him that we expect them to do what they need to do to prevent the fighting that is going on in South Kordofan, and to make sure that we do not have spillover violence in Blue Nile. I am really alarmed about what is happening at the borders there and I am alarmed at the prospects for this new country, in terms of what is needed to enable them to cope. But we will be with them, and my purpose in being there as they raise their flag is to convey that the European Union will be there, not just on the day the country comes into being, but also in the long term, to build the deep democracy and the strong economy that we know the people want and deserve.
Not surprisingly, many contributions have focused on Syria. Of all the countries and all the issues we are dealing with, Syria perhaps provides the greatest challenge. Honourable Members have come up with important new ways in which we could support the people of Syria and extend our action. Extending sanctions is something we have done twice already, and we will continue to look at that option. Mr Verhofstadt described the idea of some 200 families being included in this respect, and we will certainly take that idea forward.
I know that the desire to see safety provided for the people on the ground leads us to wonder how best we can achieve that – beyond the exhortations, the words and the pressure at the Security Council, and collaboration with our neighbours – and several speakers mentioned the idea of a safe zone. However, it is important to understand that providing some kind of safe zone for people on the ground would require a Security Council resolution: otherwise, it would be illegal under international law. Many of the roles and ideas that honourable Members have suggested are already being worked on, in one way or another, in our work in New York.
It is interesting, too, that next week, there will be a debate at the UN on the whole question of responsibility to protect, and it will be interesting to see what emerges there as a result of these issues, not least in Syria.
Honourable Members asked too whether we can do more with diplomats. We keep a delegation on the ground because their job is to continue talking to the people of Syria, and that is what they do. We have a head of delegation. We have removed people whom we have been able to move out of the country to safety, but we have a head of delegation and a very small team, and I really do pay tribute to the people who remain through all this turmoil and continue to support the work of the European Union. The work of the head of delegation is very much about day-to-day contacts with civil society and groups of intellectuals, talking to people about what is happening, and also continuing to make approaches to, and put pressure on, the government on our behalf.
I hear what people say about asking Member States to remove ambassadors, and that is a tool we could look at. I could recommend it, though I cannot enforce it, but I am also very keen to do as we have done in the case of Libya, which is to keep talking to ambassadors about what they believe is happening in their respective countries. You will know that many ambassadors to Libya have ended up deciding that their future does not lie there. However, this is an issue we will continue to consider.
I think the message about the children who are in prison is a significant one and I absolutely agree with it. It is essential that we continue the pressure to have all children taken out of prison. We will do all that we can within the operational framework we have, and we will continue to work with our partners, not least with Turkey, which many have mentioned as a key partner here. I have already indicated that we are in touch with Turkey, that I am in touch with Foreign Minister Davutoglu, and that we are supporting Turkish efforts not only in relation to the work with refugees – and we have met refugees in Turkey – but also as Turkey continues to make its own representations in Syria.
There was a concern, which I described, about the echoes from Syria that go across to Lebanon, and about the question of Hezbollah. It is true that the Mikati government is supported by Hezbollah, but Mr Mikati is not a man of Hezbollah. I think we need to try and give this government a chance to succeed. Our resources are directed at civil society and the development of the economy and an independent judiciary and, of course, we fund the special tribunal. The amount of assistance is EUR 50 million, not the figure of EUR 200 million which was mentioned by one honourable Member."@en1
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