Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-15-Speech-2-733-000"
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"en.20111115.35.2-733-000"2
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"Madam President, I am speaking on behalf of the S&D Group but also as Parliament rapporteur on the revision of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement – the framework of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
Congratulations to the rapporteur because the report takes an integrated approach on the cooperation between the EU and the ACP countries. The JPA has played an important role in monitoring the negotiations on, in particular, economic partnership agreements. The report quite rightly calls on parliaments to exercise close parliamentary scrutiny of the European Development Funds.
However, the EU Council was absent from the 20th session in Kinshasa, and that sent entirely the wrong message. So I hope that it will be present in Togo for the 22nd session at the end of the week: this would send the right message to ACP states. However, I regret that such issues as mass sexual violence, notably in DR Congo, are often only touched upon in order not to have a thorough debate. The JPA should be a platform to embrace such issues and get them on the table in a frank and robust discussion, especially as the debate could have happened in Kinshasa.
Let me turn to the Cotonou Agreement which Parliament is asked to ratify. However, the explicit refusal by the ACP in particular to include all grounds of discrimination and the principle of non-discrimination will make it extremely difficult for me to recommend to this House to agree the proposed Cotonou text. Let us be open and transparent on this issue. There is only one ground which is a cause of dissent between the EU and the ACP states, and it is non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Debates that we have had at the JPA level have been heated, often misinformed, and clearly mark a dividing line between us. But I want to send congratulations to the co-chair, Louis Michel, for his courage and his commitment to human rights and equally to others who have the courage to speak out in the JPA. The report insists that the principle of non-discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation, will not be compromised in the ACP-EU partnership. The EU will stand up for these values and will not back down.
Finally, let me state the obvious: universal values declared at the UN must apply universally. Human rights conventions are not an
menu; they define civilised societies. It is for that reason that we will defend what we believe is the principle of the universality and indivisibility of human rights."@en1
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