Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-30-Speech-3-009-000"
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"en.20111130.4.3-009-000"2
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"Last week, I made an official visit to Turkey. I met the President, gave an address in Parliament and held consultations with representatives of civil society. I also had an audience with Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, during which we discussed the situation of Christians in Turkey. The main objective of the visit was to revive accession negotiations by encouraging the Turkish side to reach an effective solution above all to the Cyprus question before 1 July 2012, when Cyprus takes over the Council Presidency. I spoke, too, of the need to carry out reforms related to freedom of speech and the rights of women and minorities. I was also given assurances of a readiness to begin work on a new constitution.
Finally, some news from Egypt. As you know, on Monday the first elections were held since President Mubarak was removed from power. The people of Egypt want and are entitled to participate in the political life of their country. The authorities, political parties and civil society must work together to ensure that the results of these elections reflect the will of the Egyptian people.
Last Friday, parliamentary elections were also held in Morocco. The new Parliament – as we know – will acquire new rights after the constitutional reforms, and with these rights it will assume greater responsibility. The European Parliament is ready to enter into closer cooperation with the Moroccan Parliament. Naturally, this also applies to the Egyptian Parliament.
We regret, however, that EU electoral observers were not invited either to Egypt or to Morocco. This is the democratic norm, and we had expected that the representatives of both these countries would conform to this standard. I need not add, because we all know this, that there are still quite a few trouble spots in North Africa and the Middle East. We are watching these regions carefully, and we sympathise with the expectations and aspirations of the societies in our southern neighbourhood."@en1
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