Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-06-Speech-3-489-000"
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"en.20110706.24.3-489-000"2
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"Madam President, the events of the Arab Spring, which have been eloquently described by Mrs De Keyser, and the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon on the promotion of, and support for, democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout the world, mean that we should redraft EU policies on support for democratic processes across the globe.
There is a lack of economic stability and a lack of social stability in countries, since the priority is, and should be, the observance of human rights and democratic rules. The De Keyser report takes a very positive approach to supporting democratic processes, not only when they begin or are in progress, but also wherever we are dealing with underground activities by opposition movements, for example. Such activities can be seen in Belarus and Syria, for example, but also in Cuba. If it were not for the Sakharov Prize, we would certainly not be as aware of events in all these countries.
We frequent have to deal with social discontent. The economic causes are important, but it is primarily the lack of democracy that means that we are dealing with events such as those in North Africa. I am pleased that the report includes a provision supporting the creation of a European Endowment for Democracy, which is a Polish initiative that will expand the instruments available to the EU for long-term support of democratic processes.
If this endowment had existed a few years ago, we would certainly not have experienced so many problems in terms of supporting such processes, for example, in Syria or Egypt. This proposal aims to supplement existing instruments, rather than to act as competition for them. We want this instrument to be set up by means of a convention. It looks like the European Parliament will be heavily involved both in supervising measures under the endowment and monitoring its budget. I would wholeheartedly urge Members to support Amendment 11, which relates to this project.
Madam President, there are a number of paradoxes within the report. It calls for EU measures to be made more individual, by tailoring them to each country, but, at the same time, it also calls for double standards to be removed from European policies. This is something I, too, also support wholeheartedly."@en1
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