Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-12-Speech-3-188-000"
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"en.20111012.16.3-188-000"2
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"Mr President, the biggest challenge to European foreign policy is not China or the US, but what is happening on the other side of the Mediterranean, in the countries of our Arab neighbours. This is not because we are fighting tyranny in those countries – it is the peoples of the countries themselves that are doing that – but because we have a stronger enemy to fight, namely, our own past of complicity and collaboration with authoritarian regimes.
That is the case with Syria where, only a little while ago, we were working to open up relations with the regime and its police state, where we did not do enough to help the refugees in the country, and where we are not doing enough now to put pressure on Turkey to recognise refugees arriving in Turkey from Syria. It is also the case with Egypt, where we are once again stumbling into the same trap of falling into the arms of the military because of potential sectarian violence. It is important to investigate exactly what has happened, because the military regime may have a hand in the sectarian violence in Egypt and across the Arabian Peninsula, in Bahrain and Yemen; and frankly, Baroness Ashton, much more is needed than simply calling up the Ambassador of Bahrain. The Ambassador of Bahrain had the nerve to tell us, in this House, that the doctors being detained were not arrested for treating protestors, but for being in the hospital outside office hours. It is also necessary to speak with Saudi Arabia, and that is much more difficult.
Finally, I would like to conclude by saying one last thing: it was the Arab Spring that brought about the release of the soldier Gilad Shalit, which you welcomed, Baroness Ashton: you should also have welcomed the release of Marwan Barghouti and of more than 1 000 Palestinians. The Arab Spring is bringing about change in that part of the world and is our greatest challenge at present."@en1
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