Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-14-Speech-3-331"
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"en.20010214.10.3-331"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Macau is a unique case, a case which is culturally specific and pivotal in the historic relationship between Europe and China through the intermediary of Portugal. We feel that preserving and valuing these links under the new framework initiated in December 1999 is a highly appropriate proposal. The European Union is Macau’s second largest trading partner and its third largest investor as a result of the trade and cooperation agreement that has already been in force since 1993 and of other one-off agreements between the European Union and Macau in various other areas. Lastly, the Portuguese administration has made a huge effort, especially in the last twenty years, to modernise the territory and its infrastructures. In its negotiations with China, it managed to ensure the establishment in Macau of an institutional legislative framework, which is of particular importance from a European perspective, for the particular way in which we see Asia and the Pacific and in terms of our relations with the great nation of China.
The main quality of this report and of the motion for a resolution that we are now debating is that it has rigorously and punctually respected the timetable and has not let Macau fall into oblivion. In saying this I am not detracting from the importance of the report. On the contrary, I consider it to be extremely appropriate, precisely in order to prevent our documents in this area being interred in a graveyard for good intentions and ending up in a drawer or, even worse, in the bin.
Looking around the Chamber, one might think this was a Portuguese debate, but what I wish to state once again is that the 1999 handover also marked the fact that Macau became a European issue of the first order. The timeliness of this Parliamentary report by Mr Soares exposes the main weakness of the Commission, which is not to have marked this fact. This clearly warrants our criticism. First of all, it is unfortunate that a year should have passed without the Commission publishing the annual report on EU-China relations that it promised and which we were expecting. Secondly, it is also unfortunate that, as far as we know, no one has yet been appointed to take charge of bilateral cooperation in Macau, which runs counter to the announcement made over a year ago in the Commission Communication to the Council and the European Parliament.
We are all perfectly familiar with the reasons why we must maintain and improve bilateral cooperation with the new Special Administrative Region and it is not worth repeating them now. I wish to congratulate Mr Soares on his excellent report and I hope that the Commission will now be able to make up for lost time and step up and better organise cooperation with Macau. I hope that it will address the challenges facing us more actively and that it will duly reread and comply with its own communication of 1999 in time."@en1
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