Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-01-Speech-3-112"
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"en.20041201.12.3-112"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in my country children’s programmes are broadcast after 7 p.m. It is my belief that the President-in-Office is a fan of bedtime stories and children’s programmes, and that is why he has left us. This does, however, show a certain lack of respect for the European Parliament, and I very much hope it will not be repeated in future.
I am delighted this debate is taking place today. It would have been wrong to replace it with the debate on Ukraine, as Ukraine is one country and Russia is another, even if Russia, or part of Russia, still thinks or wants to think in terms of the Soviet Union or the Tsarist Empire. I am also delighted for a second reason, namely that Mr Barroso and Mr Putin had major differences of opinion at the recent summit in The Hague, and that these differences of opinion did not merely relate to Ukraine. The sight of self-satisfied politicians shaking hands has generally been a bad omen for the average citizen, especially in the East.
What conclusions can be drawn from relations between Moscow and Brussels, or in other words between Russia and the European Union, over the past few years? The most obvious conclusion is that these were not in fact relations between Brussels and Moscow, but between Russia and the individual EU Member States, in particular the largest Member States. They were relations between Russia and France, Russia and Germany, Russia and Great Britain and Russia and Italy. Moscow chose its own partners for bilateral relations and played off the EU and, to a large extent, large countries against medium-sized and small countries. Our only reaction therefore has to be to act in solidarity within the framework of a united EU. Russia is an important and difficult partner, and we should not give it any opportunity to develop imperial and superpower-like tendencies. Europe, both Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, cannot afford to allow this to happen. It is not in Russia’s long-term strategic interest either."@en1
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