Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-05-Speech-3-252"
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"en.20010905.6.3-252"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, several among you have called for a dialogue with civil society in general and for a dialogue with this Parliament and the national parliaments, in particular. It is precisely because the presidency – not only myself, but also the Belgian Prime Minister – takes this dialogue so seriously that the Prime Minister has sent me to represent the presidency here today and naturally the intention is not to limit myself to a brief explanation, but to follow attentively everything you have to say and to remain calm in the process, even if I completely disagree with some of the speakers. But that is part and parcel of it.
I have thus carefully listened to all the speeches from the left, the right and the centre in this debate, and you can be certain that a number of elements will definitely inspire us. Even if it is correct that the Belgian Prime Minister, following Gothenburg, said that the law enforcers and armed forces in my country have extensive experience of all kinds of disturbances. Given the fact that the capital of my country sometimes deals with more than 2 000 of these annually, we do not want to give anyone the impression that we are not taking the situation seriously.
As a personal comment, obviously, I said that, in my opinion, the spectacle of a totally secluded zone for a summit meeting, as was the case in June or a number of weeks ago, is a very brutal spectacle. But at the same time, it was tragic to have to witness the extent of the street violence. It is absolutely awful if situations escalate to such a degree that, as we have personally witnessed, young demonstrators are killed during these disturbances. This is not acceptable, this must be prevented. There are very few, extremely few causes worth dying for. One should obviously have the right to demonstrate, protest and say whatever it may be in whatever way, but it is not acceptable that some are killed in the process, or are physically or mentally injured.
You can therefore count on us to do whatever is necessary during all council meetings of the next couple of days and weeks. My baptism – and I hope it will not be a baptism of fire – will take place tomorrow evening. The informal meeting of Foreign Trade Ministers in Bruges starts tomorrow evening and will be followed by a whole series of meetings. We will make every effort to ensure that the right balance is struck between openness and accessibility whilst ensuring that safety is maintained and that escalations of recent weeks are avoided. I wish to make that very clear to you.
For the rest, Mr President, I am also convinced that the debate on globalisation has only just got off the ground and that we will be discussing it for the foreseeable future. Needless to say, we will not always agree on everything, as I have already said, but that does not matter. For the debate to be fruitful, it is of the utmost importance not only to hear what the other person has to say, but also to try to understand what the other person is saying. For example, I have said that law enforcement and the way in which the law is enforced falls within the exclusive remit of the Member State. That is correct, but I also said at the beginning of my speech that in the Justice and Home Affairs Council, within the remit of the Union and by means of existing instruments, we will do whatever is necessary to prevent as much as possible the escalation of violence.
We will return to this topic during Question Time, when I will have the opportunity to give you more detail in my answers. We welcome dialogue, certainly constructive dialogue, but not only do we need to listen to each other, we must also try to understand one another, particularly if we do not share the same views."@en1
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