Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-27-Speech-3-169"
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"en.20020227.12.3-169"2
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"Mr President, may I start by congratulating you and wishing you all the best for your term in office. May I also congratulate Mr Gahrton on a job very well done and on the skill he demonstrated in reconciling the basic positions of the various political groups on the individual issues and setting them out in his report. It was a painstaking task but it has brought about a well-turned, balanced text which, with the members' additional amendments, is a realistic and objective summary of the current situation in the South Caucasus, the problems and the prospects outlined and the various dimensions and parameters which colour relations between third countries in the region and the European Union.
Given the generally-accepted view that the region of the South Caucasus is especially important to Europe and the fact that the European Union has taken various political and economic steps to express its desire to support the process of safeguarding reform and political stability and establishing the rule of law in these countries, I think it is worth pointing out the advisability of reinforcing the role of the European Union in formulating a strategy to resolve the problems in the region, while taking account of the specific national and historical sensibilities of these nations and encouraging neighbouring countries, especially Russia, Iran and Turkey, to make a constructive contribution towards the peace process in the South Caucasus.
The report rightly calls in this context for Turkey, which has a partnership agreement with the European Union, to prove itself worthy of its European ambitions by terminating the blockade of Armenia and creating a basis for reconciliation with it in line with the compromise set out in paragraph 15 of the report, which I urge the House to adopt.
Russia is called upon to play an equally important and pivotal role in averting conflict in the South Caucasus and resolving the highly sensitive energy question, with the countries in the region involved either as power producers or consumers.
I should like to close by stressing that the European Union's interests in the South Caucasus have to be maintained and stated consistently, with active support for the desire expressed by these countries to belong to Europe and with close collaboration between them and the European Union and its institutions in all sectors."@en1
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