Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-196"
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"en.20010704.5.3-196"2
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"Mr President, in areas such as human rights, the European Parliament has traditionally been, in a sense, the eye of the international community and has tried to goad the EU institutions into action. Many people believe this is totally useless, but I think they are wrong. Today we can do more than we could yesterday and no doubt less than tomorrow, but even that is very important. Rather as in the case of sustainable development, respect for individual rights must become an integral element of the Union’s external policy. It must be structured and based on a genuine strategy and it must apply as much to economic relations as to political relations. This is not yet the case, as the rapporteur, Mr Wuori, points out. But there are signs of progress. For the rest, I firmly welcome the good cooperation Mr Wuori managed to establish with the human rights NGOs.
If Europe is to appear credible as a Union, basing its action on respect for human rights and sustainable economic development founded on solidarity, we will have to reject all forms of hypocrisy or ambiguity. We must take a very clear stance in our political and economic relations with countries such as China, Russia, but also Saudi Arabia, the United States and many others. We cannot disregard the fact that in these countries prisoners are executed, civilians foolish enough to belong to ethnic and political minorities are massacred, women are prevented from living free and people are tortured indiscriminately. Mr Patten raised these aspects and I hope his words will very soon be followed by deeds.
Mr Michel’s statement is reassuring as regards the coming six months, and I hope even longer. I would like to ask him a very direct question. Will Belgium launch a European initiative and table a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly calling for a moratorium on capital punishment? As you know, the Finnish presidency made a first attempt in 1999, which failed. What do you intend to do in this regard, Mr Michel?"@en1
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