Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-05-Speech-2-123"
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"en.19991005.8.2-123"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this is my maiden speech in the plenary sitting of this venerable House. I am therefore particularly pleased to be able to speak on the subject of South Africa, a country whose development I have followed, since my first visit there in 1981, with concern and with hope and, recently, with confidence.
So, as the agreement now stands, in my opinion a fair balance of interests has been achieved on the whole. On the one hand, negotiations with a total of 24 rounds are surely not entirely necessary and have been dragged on and on due to sectoral or national interests. The rapporteur pointed this out. On the other hand, however, this has enabled rapprochement and mutual understanding on both sides in precisely such difficult matters as the agreement on wines and spirits or some agricultural products. The asymmetrical trade agreement envisages, among other things, the 95% opening up of European markets to South African exports within ten years.
I would particularly like to stress, in this regard, that with this free trade agreement the European Union has included the agricultural sector in an agreement for the first time. Within the realm of possibilities, i.e. in line with the rationale of the present subsidy regime, a considerable amount has been achieved. In the area of spirits, it was surely emotionally very difficult for the South Africans to cope with the fact that, in 12 years’ time, they would no longer be entitled to call their own sherry “sherry” or their own port “port”, even in their own country. In August, I attempted to console my opposite number in South Africa by pointing out that although we Germans are not permitted to call German sect “champagne”, it still sells well abroad under the name “sect”, just because it is good!
There is one drop of bitterness for me in the fact that the Council could not bring itself to adopt the agreement as a Community agreement. Its present form as a joint agreement means that it will not come into force until all Member States have ratified it.
Even if many trade-related agreements are already applicable provisionally from the start of 2000, I hope that the ratification process will not be too lengthy. As the European Parliament, with our quick adoption of this we are giving a sign for immediate action. This should serve as an example to the national parliaments and should also show our sympathy for the new South Africa, which deserves all our support on its difficult course.
Finally, we can establish economically and politically privileged relations with the country in Africa whose stable development is both in our very own interests as well as in the interests of its neighbours south of the equator. The forthcoming agreement should be useful to both. In nurturing a special relationship with South Africa, we are supporting the economic development there and, at the same time, reinforcing the potential of the country to act as a positive influence on the whole region.
Politically, we are thereby also paying tribute to the results of a reform process which, unfortunately, has not always proceeded peacefully over the years. Many people will remember both the images of the brutality of the police and army and at the same time the rioting by the blacks. The first high point in this process of democratisation were the first democratic elections for all South Africans in 1994, the visible expression of emancipation not only for the previously suppressed majority of the population but also, I believe, really for the classes privileged under the old system; a liberation from the self-imposed pressure to justify a system which they themselves knew, at least in their innermost selves, could not be justified and which also isolated them increasingly from people in Europe and North America whom they felt culturally and ethnically akin to.
This moral and political isolation, economic sanctions and the ever increasing material expense of maintaining the old order led in the end to economic stagnation and political recognition that things could not continue this way.
I am, however, also convinced that it was an event in Europe which was the final impetus for the De Klerk Government, which took office at the end of 1989, to summon up the courage to implement fundamental change in the system and thereby to abolish itself: the fall of the Berlin Wall as the last visible expression of the end of a system, in whose name even in South Africa freedom and democracy had not exactly been defended, took away from white South Africans the subjective impression that, if there were to be democratic elections in South Africa on the principle of “one man, one vote, once a vote”, they would find themselves in a one-party system and, once their property had been expropriated, in an economy under State control. A substantial argument, or bogus argument, for the repression of the liberation movement had disappeared.
In the meantime, the South African Minister for Trade and Commerce – though a member of the Communist Party – was pursuing a free market policy. We wish to support this policy of liberalisation of trade and restructuring of the economy including by means of this agreement.
In addition, an essential constituent part of the Agreement is also the defence by the parties to the contract of the observance of democratic principles, human rights, rule of law and responsible government. In order to promote this, the European Parliament must also utilise all its powers within the scope of the agreed structured political dialogue and thus offer South Africa as much support as possible in its efforts at achieving stability.
In recent years, the Group of the European People’s Party has continually supported the cause of strong cooperation with the Republic of South Africa. I therefore expressly welcome, on behalf of my group, this agreement between the European Union and South Africa and at the same time congratulate the rapporteur, Mrs Kinnock, on her excellent report, which we support.
In the five years of on-going negotiations, the European Parliament and particularly my own group have called for the speedy conclusion of this agreement and its direct entry into force. Even in the South African Parliament, by the way, there is general unanimous approval of the agreement."@en1
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