Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-16-Speech-4-176"
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"en.20061116.23.4-176"2
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"Mr President, in these debates we regularly stress the importance of dialogue and frank discussion. In Ethiopia’s case that dialogue will be a critical one, both in the sense of it being important and in the sense of our being critical of the Ethiopian Government’s current practices.
The omens are not good. Some 193 citizens were killed in the riots in June and November 2005. The report on that inquiry remains unpublished, sanitised and unclear. Since that time a number of Ethiopians have been imprisoned, and recently two EU officials were expelled from the country. All this is not news to anyone involved in this debate, but things are stacking up and do not look good for Ethiopia.
Dialogue will indeed be critical and, as Mr Matsakis says, paragraph 7 of this resolution expresses regret at the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Zenawi to Brussels to tell us about good governance. This is an irony that would be funny were it not so tragic. However, let us be positive. The Commissioner will hopefully tell us today that this will give us the opportunity to speak to Prime Minister Zenawi and tell him frankly of our concerns. I hope the Commissioner will confirm that this opportunity will not be missed when Mr Zenawi comes to Brussels.
Ethiopia plays an important role in the African Union and an important role in development. We could work much better in cooperation with one another. However, that cooperation, as colleagues have mentioned, should not be taken for granted and must be based on mutual principles and, importantly, adherence to them.
If we do not stick to our principles we can hardly expect others to, so I hope we can have a frank and open discussion with the Prime Minister when he comes to Brussels."@en1
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