Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-147"
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"en.20060906.21.3-147"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, none of the world’s regions has had so much suffering to endure, and over so many decades, as the Middle East, and those who bear the brunt of it are the people who want nothing more than to live in peace. Terrible consequences ensue from the abduction and killing of soldiers; innumerable civilians fall victim to the bombardment of real and supposed military targets. For decades, the violence has been spiralling out of control in an unending vicious circle.
We Europeans find ourselves – and perhaps for the first time ever – in a new situation in that we are not only providing the humanitarian aid that matters so much to people, but are also, as part of the Quartet, helping to shape their future, which is what I urge all those involved with the Quartet to join with the European Union in doing.
Let me conclude by saying that the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, regarding as it does human dignity as the foundation of each and every policy, calls on everyone in the Middle East and in the Arab and Muslim worlds not to exploit young people as so-called martyrs, imperilling their own lives and the lives of others, but instead to enable them to live in their own countries under decent conditions and make their contributions to society, to respect human dignity and the value of human life, and then we can stand alongside these peoples and their governments.
I would like to say, Mr President, how grateful I am to you for calling the group presidents to two meetings over the holiday period, and I would like to thank you, Mr Tuomioja, and you, Commission Ferrero-Waldner, for what you have done, as well as the High Representative Mr Solana for his own.
We, in the European Union, know that a military solution is impossible in the Middle East, that any solution must be political if it is to bring peace, and that peace must first be established in the minds of those who exercise responsibility. At the same time, though, we affirm that a military presence can help to create the conditions for peace. Here in this House, we have for many years been debating European security policy, and those who can remember back twenty years can recall wishing – while, at the time, thinking it impossible – that we could, by now, have moved on from asking ourselves whether we would intervene militarily to thinking about how we would do it. Europeans such as ourselves can derive some encouragement from this, as we proceed down the road of taking on responsibility; it can confirm to us that this is the right way to go, that we must accept this responsibility and that we do want to.
What are we aiming for? What we are aiming for is a sovereign Lebanon; we see it as unacceptable that Lebanon should be subject to control, be it direct or indirect, from Syria or Iran, and, where the part played by Iran is concerned, its influence has to be considered in the context of its nuclear programme. Hizbollah is not only a political organisation, but also a military one. Those who seek democracy in the Middle East must take note of the fact that Hizbollah’s presence in parliament and government is something that has emerged from elections. It is not, however, acceptable that there should be a state within a state, or that a political party should, by maintaining its own militia, interfere with the effectiveness of the government and armed forces of a sovereign Lebanon. That is why the peace process must, among other things, resolve the issue of how Hizbollah is to be disarmed. The primary competence must be political.
Israel’s response has brought it criticism from many quarters, and I admit that I too, at one time described it as disproportionate, but I do also want to say that I very much respect Israel for considering, in a free and democratic debate, the question of where it went wrong, both politically and militarily. I wish those states that are Israel's neighbours would be as self-critical in a debate of a similar kind. If the other states bordering upon Israel can be as self-critical, then the Middle East will have moved closer to democracy.
Perhaps I – as a European, a German, and one born of the post-war generation – might be permitted to say how deeply moved I was to hear the Israeli Prime Minister say that a German contribution to the peace effort would be welcomed. That is something quite utterly novel, the like of which was unthinkable before, and so it is right that the Federal Republic of Germany, too, together with its friends in the European Union, should make its own contribution.
I was deeply moved by that. The people of Palestine are equal in dignity to the Israelis or to Europeans such as ourselves, and they are entitled to live within secured borders. We appeal to all the interested parties in Palestine, to Fatah and to Hamas, to form a real government of national unity and thereby play their part in making peace."@en1
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