Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-06-13-Speech-4-094-000"
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"en.20130613.5.4-094-000"2
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"Madam President, it is always good to see you chairing debates such as these. We in this House are asked to give our consent, or not, to this text as negotiated by the Commission and ratified by the Council. I note, however, with some concern that not all EU Member States, nor ACP states, have a national obligation to ratify it. I would appreciate an update from the Commission on this.
There are many good points in the agreement, including some strong wording on achieving the MDGs, guaranteeing food security, policy coherence for development, sustainable fisheries, recognising the African Union and regional integration, as well as the role of local authorities and civil society, but we do have some concerns. These concerns were already addressed in Ms Joly’s report in December 2009. Most of them have not been addressed in the final text, such as the issue of the readmission of illegal immigrants, promotion of fair trade, the fight against tax evasion and tax-related aspects of development.
The sticking point for me and the House – as the Parliament has expressed in several resolutions already – concerns the negotiations on reinforcing the principle of non-negotiable human rights clauses under Article 8.4. It has not been reworded in accordance with Parliament’s wishes, and only includes the wording of Article 2 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.
There was an explicit resentment from the ACP side as regards the inclusion of sexual orientation. That is worrying, because homosexuality is still a crime in 38 ACP countries. Look at what is happening in Cameroon, in Uganda and, last week, in Nigeria. The lives of women, men, girls and boys are being taken away simply because of who they are. We would not accept this in the EU, and we should not accept it elsewhere – certainly not within our agreements. Remaining silent is a tacit acceptance of such oppressive legislation and regimes. We do not believe that political dialogue can be carried out in the future on this issue if it is not already addressed, specifically in the Cotonou Agreement.
The Commission was aware of these concerns and, although it did not press for the issue during negotiations, I do recognise that it did try to explicitly include it in a declaration, and that it has been proactive in raising the issue with ACP colleagues. We organised a conference jointly with Commissioner Piebalgs – whose commitment to human rights I unreservedly praise – and with Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, but it was boycotted at the last minute by the ACP side. I have also arranged round tables with ACP ambassadors, but I have had no success in putting the issue of sexual orientation on any common mutual agenda.
In conclusion, on the basis of these points I find it very difficult to recommend that Parliament consent to the agreement. We call tirelessly for international agreements concluded by the EU to contain binding – and non-negotiable – human rights clauses. Giving consent to this particular agreement could give the impression that we are backing away on this. However, the idea behind giving such consent is to give two years to the Commission to see how far it can go in making progress on this important issue of non-discrimination.
Therefore I have suggested the following text: ‘Consents to the conclusion of the agreement; expresses its strong reservations about parts of the agreement which do not reflect the position of the European Parliament and values of the Union; urges all parties to revise the unsatisfactory clauses accordingly during a third revision of the agreement, including the explicit introduction of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation within Article 8.4.’
I remind you that there are no financial implications, and a revision is planned for 2015. I look forward to the debate and thank the Commissioner unreservedly for his commitment and determination to uphold human rights and European values, especially when those values do not seem to grasped so willingly by our ACP partners."@en1
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