Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-12-Speech-2-188"
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"en.20010612.10.2-188"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, may I firstly, on behalf of the Group of the European People's Party, thank our rapporteur. Once again he has tabled an excellent report on the external service and I hope, Commissioner, that you will listen to me and Mr Galeote Quecedo and that in the spirit of his report you will be so good as to give clear answers. I believe – in fact we agree on this – that we need to leave history behind. We need to consider the current functions of the delegation, based on the functions of the Union. We have of course had Maastricht with the second pillar, the foreign and security policy, and we now have increased responsibilities in the field of world trade policy. We therefore need to make sure that delegations are opened in all of those cities which are important political and economic partners.
This brings me back, Commissioner, to the debate of a few minutes ago. I believe that it is precisely in Asia that we need more delegations. Mr Galeote's report proposes Singapore and Taipei as the places where we should open delegations immediately. Coming back to Mr Sakellariou's comments on Taipei, Taiwan is the EU's fourth largest trading partner and an example of how a society in Asia can be transformed, at its own instigation, from an authoritarian regime into a living parliamentary democracy. This is an excellent illustration of the fact that the principles of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights work in Asia and are even something which the countries themselves want. That is why it is high time that we also open an office in Taiwan.
So, delegations in Singapore and Taiwan, and Mr Galeote also mentioned other regions in the world. What I believe is important now is for you, when you send us the next document, to provide a clear list of countries and dates – in months and years – indicating where and when you think that delegations should be opened. If there is no money then say: we need the money. Then we will have to have a chat about it here and see whether we can have a friendly argument with Mr Bourlanges and win him over. But we need a report in which it clearly states which countries and in which month of which year, and then we will also be able to lend you our support and build up a decent external service for the Union."@en1
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