Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-07-Speech-4-166"
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"en.20090507.29.4-166"2
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"Mr President, whenever we discuss human rights we seem to be talking about a virtual EU: a European Union that exists only in Parliament resolutions, Commission press releases and Council communiqués. It is that wonderful, peaceful, human rights EU that spreads its values not through daisy-cutter bombs but rather through trade accords and partnership agreements.
However, I feel it is incumbent on somebody to stand back and ask where this European Union is in the real world. In the real world, Brussels is seeking to sell arms to the Communist regime in Beijing and isolating Taiwan, it is cosying up to the Ayatollahs in Tehran, it is refusing to do business with the anti-Castro dissidents in Cuba and it is trying to funnel cash to Hamas. It is running protectorates – or satrapies as they were in Ottoman days – in Bosnia and in Kosovo, and within its own borders it is disregarding the will of the people in referendums.
Perhaps when we respect that basic right of being able to change your government through the ballot box and change public policy through your vote within the European Union, then we will have earned the moral authority to lecture others."@en1
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