Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-215"
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"en.20000905.16.2-215"2
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"It is my very great pleasure to welcome Mr Avraham Burg, Speaker of the Knesset, and Mr Ahmed Qurie, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, to the European Parliament. I am thrilled to be able to do so, and to do so with great hopes for peace.
The European Parliament is not welcoming you here today in order to preach at you, but as a friend to the two nations you represent, which are both finally entitled to peace, security and development.
When the same process is under way in the Middle East as the one which has brought Europe not only from armed conflict to peace, but from peace to cooperation between neighbouring countries, perhaps we can envisage a parliamentary assembly uniting the peoples of your region as our counterpart! What a wonderful dream this would be, and I am sure that our shared determination will one day make it a reality.
Mr Avraham Burg, Speaker of the Knesset, Mr Abu Ala, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the debate which you have just heard has testified to the European Union’s and, in particular, the European Parliament’s interest in the progress of the current negotiations.
Your may rest assured that we shall be listening to your words with the utmost attention.
Allow me to hope, without denying the major obstacles, weighty as we know them to be, during this crucial phase of the negotiations, that you will be able to assure this House that the gateway to peace will remain open and that both your nations will go through it together.
Without further ado, I shall give the floor first to Mr Abu Ala and then to Mr Burg.
I would like to thank you both for the courage and open-mindedness with which you have both accepted the invitation I made to you during my official visit to the Middle East in February this year. Your joint visit is unprecedented in the history of this institution. It has been made possible because you are both men of peace, and it is as such that Parliament welcomes you here today. I am mindful that your visit is also due in great part to the persuasive diplomatic efforts of our fellow Member, Luisa Morgantini, Chairman of the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, whom I must thank particularly for this.
It is highly significant that, in your capacities as the speakers of the two assemblies which will be required to ratify the agreements which are being drawn up, and in which negotiations you are yourselves taking part, you have opted to come together to address the European Parliament.
We appreciate the true worth of your approach: the value of your shared determination to reach a peace agreement, the determination to see Europe involved in the ongoing process to a greater extent, and let me welcome Ambassador Moratinos at this point, and the determination to step up your cooperation with the European Union at parliamentary level.
There is not one of us who is unaware of the complexity of the situation in the Middle East, in this land which is home to what a large part of the human race considers to be the most sacred historic sites, which are hence the most disputed sites.
We Europeans are in a good position to know just how difficult it is to make peace rather than war.
It has taken us, particularly in the twentieth century, devastating wars which have ravaged the entire world with the tragic loss of millions of lives before realising, at last, that war is a madness which wreaks universal ruin."@en1
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