Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-14-Speech-2-162"
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"en.20001114.6.2-162"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I share the determination which has been expressed to give a new boost to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership forthwith. Even those behind the Barcelona process consider that it has broken down – that is the description which has been used – and it is a long way from having fulfilled its promises. In this respect, today’s motion for a resolution falls a long way short of the declared ambition. The peoples of the South are often critical and are concerned about this failure. I share their impatience, and even their disappointment and their anger, at the delays but also at the inadequacies of this partnership and at the initial damage it has caused.
There are still extreme disparities between the two sides of the Mediterranean, which keep the peoples of the South in an explosive economic and social situation, with poverty and unemployment, particularly among young people. The path leading to an area of shared prosperity has, for the time being, stopped at the association agreements, which are governed by strictly economic and financial interests in denial of the needs of the people. These populations, however, are already suffering under the weight of the debt, the drop in the price of raw materials and imposed structural actions.
The free trade area is in danger of considerably intensifying these imbalances, even though there is an urgent need, instead, for greater collaboration in order to meet needs. I am thinking in particular of public services, more especially in the areas of water, education, health, public transport and housing. This partnership will have no future unless it has the benefit of close cooperation with the representatives of the citizens concerned, the associations, the NGOs, the trade unions and civil society as a whole.
Moreover, the dream of peace on both sides of the Mediterranean should be listened to and the wish granted at the earliest possible opportunity. The spiralling violence in the Middle East, the war being waged so violently and resolutely against the Palestinian people, whose right to statehood is still being denied by Israel, are all threatening the future of the entire region. The European Union must, as the Palestinian leaders expressly request, henceforth take bold action in order to put an end to the gunfire, to promote effective dialogue and actively militate in favour of applying the UN resolutions.
The Marseilles Conference could have been used to this end. The failure – or, at least, the relative failure – of the Charter for Peace and Stability proves that it is not possible to achieve Europe’s “security” on the basis of marginalising the South and closing borders. These last few days in Marseilles, I have observed the great numbers of speakers addressing such comments to the Conference of Ministers, speaking in favour of cancelling debt and replacing free trade with relations of mutually supportive codevelopment..."@en1
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