Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-17-Speech-3-056"
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"en.19991117.2.3-056"2
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"Mr President, in the little time that remains I will try to deal with two or three issues of a general nature concerning the questions and matters which you have raised during this sitting. But please allow me first of all to thank all those Members of the various parliamentary groups who have chosen to speak and have wished me, and wished us, luck in this enterprise. I can tell you that I will put all my commitment, all my energy and all my political experience into making a great success of this enterprise, in cooperation with all the other institutions.
I believe that, as some speakers have expressed so clearly, the Europe that is moving into the 21st century is much better than the Europe that many of us dreamt of and it still perhaps has a journey to make for those of us who are dreamers. We are without doubt succeeding with the common currency, we have made progress in the economic field and the moment has come to make progress in the political field, and specifically in the field of foreign and security policy. And in this direction and in this effort you will find that I am working with you.
I would like to make three points in an attempt to deal collectively with the many questions you have put to me: firstly, foreign policy in the strict sense. After the Cologne Summit, we now have new instruments – one relates to common strategies – which must, without any doubt whatsoever, lead to a profound change in the way we approach foreign policy. Common strategies – some of which are already defined – must mean the pooling of all the Union’s and the Member States’ capacities in order to implement a policy. This has not happened before now. This has come about as a result of the decisions taken in Cologne and, specifically, it has happened in the common strategy with regard to Russia. That must be our centre of gravity in terms of action.
The second question I wanted to refer to – because many of you have raised this concern – is the concern regarding the management and prevention of crises. I would like to say that I agree totally – and this was best expressed in the clear intervention by Mr Pierre Schori – that we do not only have to put an end to crises, but we should prevent them from the outset. That is what we are trying to do. The Treaty of Amsterdam provides for an early warning unit whose objective is to be attentive to what may happen so that we can prevent it happening and not have to act either militarily nor collectively if we are able to do everything possible by diplomatic means or by preventive means.
Please allow me to share with you a very sad personal experience of mine. When we began to take action on the Bosnia crisis we developed a military plan involving the deployment of troops – remember that 60,000 troops were deployed in Bosnia – which came a long time before the civil plan which we should have implemented. That difference in momentum between the two plans had consequences which many of us regret to this day and which I personally regret.
I would like, in line with what we have noted, any crisis management or peace-keeping operation to be planned according to a global view of its civil, police and military aspects. In this way we would be in a better situation in Kosovo now and, before that, in Bosnia.
And finally I would like to make a brief comment on the current issue which has been addressed – and I imagine this will be of interest to you. This afternoon or tomorrow morning an important meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe begins. The honourable representative of the left group said that the OSCE must continue to be at the heart of pan-European security. And he also said this in relation to the crisis in Chechnya. In the hours to come we have a wonderful opportunity to try to make the OSCE into an important organisation and, at the same time, to persuade the Russian authorities to allow Europe to play a role which, up till now, it has not been allowed to play. There is a degree of contradiction on the part of the Russian authorities who show the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe the greatest affection – so to speak – and at the same time do not allow it to play its rightful role. I can tell you that, on the part of the European Union, tomorrow and the day after, we will do everything possible to enable the OSCE to play an important role, in accordance with its obligations, at a time when a new charter on security in Europe is about to be signed. It would be really absurd if, just as we are about to sign a new collective charter on security in Europe through the OSCE, that organisation is not able to do what it has to do in the conflict which is now taking place in the Caucasus.
There have been a good number of questions and it would take too long to answer them all one by one. I can tell you that I have taken note of all of them, that I will answer all of them promptly, and that, as I said at the beginning, I will be available to you at all times to try to realise our common dream. Thank you for your support and your cooperation. We will be in contact over the coming months and years to enable us to make a success of this noble endeavour which we are all taking on with great enthusiasm."@en1
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